People like Stephen Clarke

Stephen Clarke (born 15 October 1958 in St. Albans) is a British author. He writes mainly about France. He published six novels featuring a British protagonist named Paul West.

Before writing books, Clarke wrote comedy sketches for BBC Radio 4 and comic-book stories for the U.S. cartoonist and comics artist Gilbert Shelton. Having graduated from Oxford University he spent several years working in Glasgow as a bilingual lexicographer for the dictionary firm HarperCollins. He then moved to work for a French press group.

On 1 April 2004 Clarke successfully self-published A Year in the Merde It found attention in France too. Later Clarke sold the rights to Transworld in the UK, Bloomsbury Publishing PLC in the United States, Penguin in Canada and Random House in Australia. It was eventually published in altogether about 20 languages.