The Matchmaker Of Perigord

'Love is like a good cassoulet, it needs time and determination.'

Any satire of village life depends for its gags on an ensemble of engaging eccentrics, and Stuart's zesty narrative style is tailor-made for farce. Her flesh-and-blood creations . . . feel entirely homegrown . . . Stuart injects her own brand of va-va-voom.

Fast, furious and incredibly funny . . . Julia Stuart sets a great pace in this lip-smacking mix of food, foolishness and fun.

Julia Stuart is a freelance journalist and former feature writer for the Independent and the Independent on Sunday. She lives in Bahrain. The Matchmaker of Périgord is her first novel.

A perpetual breeze blows through Amour-sur-Belle, a village so ugly that even the English refuse to live there. 
 
Guillaume Ladoucette, the barber, is forced to give up his business as the advancing age of his customers means many have gone bald. He decides to set himself up as a matchmaker instead, for, despite its name, love is the one thing that Amour-sur-Belle lacks. Some shun Denise Vigier because her grandmother was found guilty of horizontal collaboration during the war. The bar owner refuses to serve Madame Fournier, the mushroom poisoner. And Madame Ladoucette and Madame Moreau have been trading insults for so long they have become almost a form of greeting. 
 
'Not everyone falls instantly head over heels,' the matchmaker counsels. 'Love is like a good cassoulet, it needs time and determination.' But how can a matchmaker make love simmer - when he has not yet solved the problem of his own troubled heart?

Julia Stuart

The Last Pearl Fisher of Scotland is a gently comic, gently tragic novel, full of lyricism, humanity and the pearl that is love. Read it at once

From the bestselling author of Balthazar Jones and the Tower of London Zoo comes the story of one man's quest to find a pearl, save his marriage – and track down a missing rabbit named Frank 
 
'The Last Pearl Fisher of Scotland is a gently comic, gently tragic novel, full of lyricism, humanity and the pearl that is love. Read it at once' 
A. L. Kennedy 
 
Brodie McBride is having a tough time. 
 
The last expert in the ancient art of pearl fishing, he’s on a quest to track down the pearl that will complete a necklace for his wife, Elspeth, convinced that the love token will save their marriage. 
 
But Scotland’s rivers are running out of mussels, Elspeth is running out of patience, and their daughter, Maggie, is running wild with her moustachioed pet rabbit. 
 
And when Maggie takes matters into her own hands, determined to keep the family together, the McBrides are soon at the centre of international commotion that will change everyone’s lives forever.

Julia Stuart

Praise for The Last Pearl Fisher of Scotland

The Last Pearl Fisher of Scotland is a gently comic, gently tragic novel, full of lyricism, humanity and the pearl that is love. Read it at once

Books by Julia Stuart

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