Peter Mayle
| Peter Mayle | |
|---|---|
| Born |
14 June 1939 Brighton, England |
| Residence | Vaugines, Provence |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Writer (advertising, travel, children's non-fiction) |
| Known for | books on Provence |
| Spouse(s) | Jennie (third wife) |
| Children | 3 sons from first marriage 2 daughters from second |
| Notes | |
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Peter Mayle (born 14 June 1939) is a British author famous for his series of books detailing life in Provence, France.
Born in Brighton, historically in Sussex, the youngest of three children, Mayle and his family moved to Barbados after the war, where his father was transferred as a Foreign Office employee. Peter returned to England after leaving school at 16.
His first job in 1957 was as a trainee at Shell Oil, based in their London office. It was there that he discovered that he was more interested in advertising than oil and he wrote to David Ogilvy, the head of the advertising agency that had the Shell account at that time, asking for a job. Ogilvy offered him a job as a junior account executive but Mayle's interest was more on the creative side of the business and he subsequently became a copywriter in 1961 based in their New York office. In due course another agency, Papert Koenig, Lois, poached him from Ogilvy and sent him back to London to head up the creative team in their UK office, where one of his colleagues was Alan Parker. When the US parent hit trouble in the mid-60s he and a colleague bought the London operation. They developed the business with accounts that included Watneys, Olivetti and Sony and after five years, they were bought by BBDO, one of the top American agencies. He then commuted between the US and the UK as their creative director. By 1974 he had had enough of advertising and transatlantic commuting and quit the business to write full-time.
He started off by writing educational books, including a series on sex education for children and young people. Subsequently he relocated from Devon to France in the late 80s but his plans to write a novel were overtaken by an account of life in his new environment. This resulted in his 1989 book A Year in Provence which became an international bestseller, chronicling his first year as a British expatriate in Ménerbes, a village in the southern département Vaucluse. Several more books followed, which have been translated in more than twenty languages. He also wrote for magazines and newspapers. A Year in Provence was subsequently produced as a TV series starring John Thaw and screened in 1993. A novel A Good Year was the basis for the 2006 film of the same name directed by Ridley Scott and starring actors Russell Crowe and Marion Cotillard.
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