The son of a civil servant in the Colonial Office, Mayle was born in Sussex and educated at a local public school, Brighton College, which he did not enjoy. Five years later, the Mayles bought a secluded house in another part of Provence and moved back. Yet he could never quite shake off the region with which he will always be associated. With readers and fans sniffing around his home and the chorus of grumbling neighbours, he and his wife sold up and moved to the U.S.

'They're just glorified tourists, as I'm a glorified tourist.' 'They have such a proprietorial attitude about the place,' he said after one media spat with another Brit. He had grown fed up with the moans of 'snotty' expats. Menerbes in the Luberon Hills is designated a 'plus beaux village' and is celebrated in 'A Year in Provence' He got in there just as budget flights and foodie television programmes were taking off, but before the market was saturated by the celebrity chef gang. There had been plenty of earnest, high-brow accounts over the years of Brits starting their lives all over again in foreign parts, but Mayle's style and his timing were spot on. Then there were all those other writers and would-be writers who were furious that Mayle had done what they had always dreamed of doing. They did not want it overrun by the masses, thanks very much. Mayle's critics came at him on two fronts.įirst, there were the fellow expats outraged that he had the temerity to lift a lid on their part of France. He noted down what he called The Sayings of August, phrases like 'I feel terrible watching you slave away like that' and 'I didn't realise you had to be so careful with a septic tank'.įew authors have had their success begrudged quite so consistently, however. Mayle was equally scathing about thoughtless British friends who would come to stay.

Few authors have had their success begrudged quite so consistently.

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