A Year in Provence


A Year in Provence is a 1989 best-selling memoir by Peter Mayle about his first year in Provence, and the local events and customs. It was adapted into a television mini-series starring John Thaw and Lindsay Duncan. Reviewers praised the book's honest style, wit and its refreshing humour. The book was turned into an equally popular radio version.

Plot

Peter Mayle and his wife move to Provence, and are soon met with unexpectedly fierce weather, underground truffle dealers and unruly workers, who work around their normalement schedule. Meals in Provençal restaurants and work on the Mayles' house, garden and vineyard are features of the book, whose chapters follow the months of the year.

Miniseries

In 1993, the BBC produced a television miniseries based on the book, starring Lindsay Duncan and John Thaw, with appearances from Alfred Molina and James Fleet amongst others. Unlike the book, the mini series was
not well received by critics; A Year in Provence was later placed at number ten on a Radio Times list of
the worst television programmes ever made with the writer, John Naughton, describing it as a "smugathon... which achieved the near impossible – creating a John Thaw vehicle nobody liked".