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 Academy Awards, Oscar for Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, Best Origina ...

in 1955. The film was released in the U.S. under the title ''

The French, They Are a Funny Race ''The French, They Are a Funny Race'' (french: Les Carnets du Major Thompson, lit=The Notebooks of Major Thompson; released in the United Kingdom as ''The Diary of Major Thompson'') is a 1955 French comedy film written and directed by Preston Stu ...

''. 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. Daninos was the brother of the industrialist

Jean Daninos Jean Daninos (2 December 1906 – 13 October 2001) was a Greek-French constructor of luxury cars Facel Vega, born in Paris. The brother of the Pierre Daninos, Jean Daninos had founded the company FACEL (Forges et Ateliers des Constructions d'Eure ...

, who produced the

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