A love letter to Paris and a memoir of a life spent at its bohemian heart, rich with adventures, misadventures and the beauty of one of the most enduringly romantic cities in the world
The Existential Englishman is both a memoir and an intimate portrait of Paris – a city that can enchant, exhilarate and exasperate in equal measure. As Peppiatt remarks: 'You reflect and become the city just as the city reflects and becomes you'. This, then, is one man's not uncritical love letter to Paris.
Intensely personal, candid and entertaining, The Existential Englishman chronicles Peppiatt's relationship with Paris in a series of vignettes structured around the half-dozen addresses he called home as a plucky young art critic. Having survived the tumultuous riots of 1968, Peppiatt traces his precarious progress from junior editor to magazine publisher, recalling encounters with a host of figures at the heart of Parisian artistic life – from Sartre, Beckett and Cartier-Bresson to Serge Gainsbourg and Catherine Deneuve. Peppiatt also takes us into the secret places that fascinate him most in this ancient capital, where memories are etched into every magnificent palace and humble cobblestone.
On the historic streets of Paris, where all life is on show and every human drama played out, Michael Peppiatt is the wittiest and wickedest of observers, capturing the essence of the city and its glittering cultural achievements.
Michael Peppiatt has been writing about art and artists since 1964, when he began reviewing exhibitions for the Observer while still a student. He left London for a job as arts editor at Réalités then Le Monde in Paris, where he lived at the heart of the art and literary world for the following thirty years, becoming cultural correspondent for the New York Times and, in 1985, owner and publisher of Art International.
Peppiatt is the author of a dozen books, including Francis Bacon: Anatomy of an Enigma, In Giacometti's Studio, Interviews with Artists and the acclaimed memoir Francis Bacon in Your Blood. He has also curated numerous exhibitions, notably Giacometti in Postwar Paris, Caravaggio/Bacon, Joan Miró: A Painter Among Poets and, recently, Bacon/Giacometti.
“If you're interested in art, or writing, or Paris, it will ring bells in your head. I loved it” —Evening Standard
“Peppiatt's account of his bohemian life in Paris is full of colour, character and charm ... Peppiatt has an aesthete's love of life, and there are vivid descriptions of food, drink and romance here that both enrapture and inspire. This enjoyable book works best as an account of a lifelong love affair with the Parisian streets ... The Existential Englishman offers elegant proof that Michael Peppiatt's powers of observation remain undimmed and acute” —Observer
“Being an acute observer and friend of artists, [Peppiatt] shares with them a heightened sensitivity, which leads him to write evocatively about particular memories … Evocative and beautiful prose” —Literary Review
“On the page, [Peppiatt] remains probably one of the most eminent art writers of our time; off it, to judge by the swirl of parties, interviews, and chance encounters that fill this memoir, he is a gifted and indefatigable conversationalist” —Sunday Telegraph
“Engaging ... Peppiatt's passion for Paris, and his clear perception of its innumerable atmospheres … The personal story is sharpened by a judicious use of the present tense, but it is enhanced above all by a historical vision which enables Michael Peppiatt to paint the characters of several quartiers with archaeological precision. Even readers unacquainted with the city should be charmed by his portrait” —Times Literary Supplement
“Brings [Paris] to life so vividly you can almost smell it ... Très drôle” —Daily Telegraph
“One of the best art books I have read, by turns atmospheric and waspishly gossipy but also profound and poignant” —Praise for Francis Bacon in Your Blood, Michael Prodger, The Times
“This vivid new memoir by the artist's protégé is set to be a classic” —Praise for Francis Bacon in Your Blood, Sunday Telegraph
“The best art memoir published in years ... it is personal, subjective and sufficiently scurrilous” —Praise for Francis Bacon in Your Blood, Spectator