For most people I know, having a daily – if not hourly – browse of the Mail Online is something of a guilty pleasure. Whether you like the Showbiz & Gossip page, the Femail or the Sport, visiting the Mail Online has, in recent years, become a daily habit for people all over the world. So much so, in fact, that the Daily Mail’s readership has recently overtaken that of The Sun’s – a paper which has long held the top spot.
Thus, I would be rather surprised if many people hadn’t heard of, if not read an article written by, Daily Mail Journalist Samantha Brick. She caused huge controversy last year when she penned an article that featured both online in imprint entitled ‘Why Women Hate Me For Being Beautiful‘ and has since become known as the antithesis to feminism.
Often a fan of the underdog, however, I was quite keen to read Head Over Heels in France – Brick’s memoir of leaving London and falling in love with France. Having always had a romanticised view of France, and indeed longing for the day when I, too, can leave behind the smog of London in favour of rural village life in the South of France, the topic of the book certainly resonated with me.
Brick speaks honestly about the hardships that caused her move to France and the book is written in a colloquial manner that endears the reader. Following the bankruptcy of her business, Brick goes from living a privileged life on a six-figure salary in Richmond, to a grotty sounding cottage on the outskirts of Birmingham. Suffering from depression and unable to see a light at the end of a tunnel, her mother pays for her to visit a friend in France, which sees the beginning of a romance – with both France itself and Pascal – that man she would later move to France for and marry.
An easy, light-hearted read, Head Over Heels in France is a charming book that further whets my appetite for a quiet life in rural France.
About Head Over Heels in France
When Samantha Brick’s life started to unravel—her company in liquidation, homeless, penniless, and friendless, and on max-strength anti-depressants—it seemed that everything was going wrong. But a chance week away in France led to the most unexpected of all turn-arounds: a whirlwind romance with gun-toting, stubborn, and ever-so-macho Pascal. It wasn’t until she moved in to his cottage in the beautiful Lot region in southwest France that she realized how shamefully ill-equipped she was for the country life. Like Cinderella in reverse, Samantha had to learn to cook, clean, chop wood, and keep house, as well as discovering how to be a stepmother to Pascal’s know-it-all 10-year-old son, and finding love and happiness along the way.
About Samantha Brick
Samantha Brick is an award winning television producer who worked in the industry for eighteen years, producing TV shows in the UK and the US. She has created and overseen documentaries and award winning reality shows for every major channel, including ITV, BBC and Channel 4 in the UK and in the US MTV, Fox and Bravo – amongst others.
Today Samantha’s work frequently appears in the Daily Mail, YOU Magazine, The Sun and Grazia. She lives in south-west France with her husband and five dogs.
Head Over Heels in France is her first memoir.
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