Pierre Loti

When Pierre Loti - traveller, acrobat, naval officer, celebrated writer - died in 1923, he was given a state funeral, the only French writer to have received such as an honour besides Victor Hugo. This storyteller - bohemian, exotic and fiercely romantic - spent his life escaping the constraints of bourgeois France, and in doing so refined his age. He travelled the South Seas, Asia and the Middle East (his great obsession), and authored many novels and travel books. As adored as he was scorned by French society, Loti led the life that most romantics only dared write about.

Review: 'Anyone who reads this book will have a marvellous time. Blanch has written an exceptionally good biography of an exceptionally interesting man. Even if you have never heard of Loti until this minute, even if you never plan to read any of his books, I recommend it to you.' -Noel Perrin, Washington Post '...what makes Loti so extraordinary and this book so enthralling is not that he was an escapist, but that he was an escapologist, getting out of scrapes and away with behaviour that would normally lead to disaster, disgrace, even death...Lesley Blanch is a most congenial biographer for this eccentric man...She has a natural sympathy with people who live out their fantasies... She also has the sense of humor her subject lacks, and is very funny without ever being unkind.' -Gabrielle Annan, New York Review of Books