Stephen Clarke (born 15 October 1958 in

St. Albans St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major town on the old Roman r ...

) is a British author. He writes mainly about France. He published six

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

s featuring a British protagonist named Paul West.

Career

Before writing books, Clarke wrote comedy sketches for

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

and

comic-book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

stories for the U.S. cartoonist and comics artist

Gilbert Shelton Gilbert Shelton (born May 31, 1940) is an American cartoonist and a key member of the underground comix movement. He is the creator of the iconic underground characters ''The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers'', '' Fat Freddy's Cat'', and ''Wonder W ...

. Having graduated from

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

he spent several years working in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

as a bilingual

lexicographer Lexicography is the study of lexicons, and is divided into two separate academic disciplines. It is the art of compiling dictionaries. * Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries. * Theoreti ...

for the dictionary firm

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Cor ...

. He then moved to work for a French press group.

Works

On 1 April 2004 Clarke successfully

self-published Self-publishing is the publication of media by its author at their own cost, without the involvement of a publisher. The term usually refers to written media, such as books and magazines, either as an ebook or as a physical copy using POD (pri ...

''A Year in the Merde'' It found attention in France too. Later Clarke sold the rights to Transworld in the UK,

Bloomsbury Publishing Bloomsbury Publishing plc is a British worldwide publishing house of fiction and non-fiction. It is a constituent of the FTSE SmallCap Index. Bloomsbury's head office is located in Bloomsbury, an area of the London Borough of Camden. It has a U ...

PLC in the United States,

Penguin Penguins (order (biology), order List of Sphenisciformes by population, Sphenisciformes , family (biology), family Spheniscidae ) are a group of Water bird, aquatic flightless birds. They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere: on ...

in Canada and

Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...

in Australia. It was eventually published in altogether about 20 languages. The sequel '' Merde Actually'' appeared in 2005, and was followed by a non-fiction book ('' Talk to the Snail'', a humorous guide to the

French language French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in Nor ...

and the French) in

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

. The third novel about Paul West was published in July 2007 in Great Britain and one year later in the USA: '' Merde Happens'', This time

Englishman The English people are an ethnic group and nation native to England, who speak the English language, a West Germanic language, and share a common history and culture. The English identity is of Anglo-Saxon origin, when they were known in ...

Paul West explores the United States instead of France. Clarke's fourth novel ''Dial M for Merde'' played again in France (this time

South of France Southern France, also known as the South of France or colloquially in French as , is a defined geographical area consisting of the regions of France that border the Atlantic Ocean south of the Marais Poitevin,Louis Papy, ''Le midi atlantique'', A ...

) and was published in the UK on 10 September 2008. The fifth novel ''The Merde Factor'' about Paul West returning to Paris was published on 13 September 2012. Stephen Clarke's second non-fiction offering, ''1000 Years of Annoying the French'', was published in the United Kingdom on 18 March 2010. It concentrates on conflicts between the French and the "

Anglo-Saxons The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...

" over the past ten centuries, In Amazon.co.uk's bestseller lists, at one point the book was simultaneously at number 4 in the history chart and number one in humour.

Bibliography

Fiction

''The 'Merde' Series'' *''

A Year in the Merde ''A Year in the Merde'' is a comic novel by Stephen Clarke first published in 2004 under the pen name Paul West. In later editions, the author's real identity was revealed. In France, the book title is ''God save la France''. Paul West is in ...

'' European Countries (2004) *'' Merde Actually'' (2005) - Known as '' In the Merde for Love'' in the USA. *'' Merde Happens'' A roadtrip across Americas (2007) *'' Dial M for Merde'' Based in the South of France (2008) *'' The Merde Factor'' Paul West's Parisian update (2012) *'' Merde in Europe'' Paul West's is One Brit in Brussels (2016) ''Stand-alone'' *''A Brief History of the Future'' (2011) ''What if teleportation was really possible? Englishman Richie Fisher is about to find out...''

Non-fiction

*'' Talk to the Snail'' (2006) An ironical survival guide to the French way of life. *'' 1000 Years of Annoying the French'' (2010) A satirical version of British-French history. *'' Paris Revealed - The Secret Life of a City'' (2011) A behind the scenes look of Paris. *'' Dirty Bertie: An English King Made in France'' (2014) A biography of Edward VII *''

How the French Won Waterloo (or think they did) How may refer to: * How (greeting), a word used in some misrepresentations of Native American/First Nations speech * How, an interrogative word in English grammar Art and entertainment Literature * How (book), ''How'' (book), a 2007 book by ...

'' (2016) A look at the French attitude to Waterloo *'' The French Revolution and What Went Wrong'' (2018)

References

External links

Stephen Clarke's official website

''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' (29 June 2004). The first newspaper article about Stephen in the British national press.
Stephen Clarke Interview: 1,000 years of annoying the French

Stephen Clarke Interview: Paris Revealed - The Secret Life of a City
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clarke, Stephen 1958 births Living people British male journalists 21st-century British novelists British emigrants to France British male novelists 21st-century British male writers