Pierre Daninos (26 May 1913 – 7 January 2005) was a French writer and humorist.
Life
Daninos was born in Paris. He wrote ''Les carnets du Major Thompson'', which was published in 1954, and was followed by many sequels. The books in the series pretended to be the observations of a retired British officer living in France, and were witty collections of comparisons between French and British society. Daninos was also the author of ''Un Certain Monsieur Blot'', a critique of French middle class taste and habits.
Some of these books were translated into English and published as ''Major Thompson Lives in France and Discovers the French'', ''Major Thompson and I'' and ''Major Thompson Goes French''.
''Les carnets du Major Thompson'' was filmed by
Preston Sturges
Preston Sturges (; born Edmund Preston Biden; August 29, 1898 – August 6, 1959) was an American playwright, screenwriter, and film director. In 1941, he won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for the film ''The Great McGinty'' (1940), his ...
in 1955.
The film was released in the U.S. under the title ''
The French, They Are a Funny Race''.
[
These works were not praised by everyone. ''The Guardians obituary considered that this sort of thing had been done before and sometimes done better, and that Daninos had uncritically repeated instead of critically examining national stereotypes.]Facel Vega
Facel S.A. was a French manufacturer of pressed steel automobile components, later complete automobiles of their own design.
To intensify its World War II war effort, French subcontracting company for military aeronautics Bronzavia created a s ...
luxury cars.
He died in Paris, aged 91.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Daninos, Pierre
1913 births
2005 deaths
Writers from Paris
20th-century French novelists
21st-century French novelists
Prix Interallié winners
Lycée Janson-de-Sailly alumni
Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery
French male novelists
20th-century French male writers
21st-century French male writers