Countries which took part in the poll include Ireland, Austria, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Russia, The Netherlands, South Africa, Brazil, the US and Canada.

The shortlisted titles are:

The Twin by Gerbrand Bakker.

The Elegance Of The Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery.

In Zodiac Light by Robert Edric.

Settlement by Christoph Hein.

The Believers by Zoe Heller.

Netherland by Joseph O'Neill.

God's Own Country by Ross Raisin.

Home by Marilynne Robinson.

The winner will be announced on 17 June in Dublin.

'EVERY SHORTLIST NEEDS its novel of ideas and French philosopher Muriel Barbery has certainly provided exactly that with her charmingly eccentric meditation, The Elegance of the Hedgehog , which celebrates the allure of information, fact and fancy.' Irish Times

The FLF is a celebration of books and writers with the focus on promoting South African writing and reading, run largely by volunteers and well supported by the Franschhoek community.

http://www.flf.co.za/

Sunday 7th March, 2.45pm to 3.45pm at the Guildhall, Bath.

Anna Sam will be in discussion with journalist Agnès Poirier about the French attitude to food, work and life as part of the Bath LitFest 2010.

Thursday 21st January 7:00 p.m.

Completed when Napoleon was only 26, the tragic story of Clisson and Eugénie reveals one of history's great leaders to be also an accomplished writer of fiction and offers a fascinating insight into the young man's view of love, women and military life.

Peter Hicks and Émilie Barthet have created the definitive version of Clisson and Eugénie from original fragments of manuscript. This edition includes their notes and commentary on Napoleon the writer, and an introduction by Napoleonic specialist, Armand Cabasson, on the man behind the legend.

to books@whsmith.fr WH Smith Paris - 248 rue de Rivoli - 75001 Paris - M° Concorde - 01 44 77 88 99

Jane Aitken, founder of Gallic Books, has been awarded the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, for her work in promoting French literature in the UK. She received the honour at the French Embassy last week. The medal was presented by His Excellency M Maurice Gourdault-Montagne, the French Ambassador, who praised Aitken for introducing French authors to an English audience and made special mention of the part she played in the international success of Muriel Barbery's The Elegance of the Hedgehog, which was dramatised on Radio 4 earlier this year.

In accepting the medal, Aitken paid tribute to British booksellers for their support of Gallic Books authors. "They have all, large and small, been very welcoming to our French writers and we at Gallic are very grateful to them."

Gallic Books was founded in 2007 by Aitken and Pilar Webb, and is dedicated to publishing the best of French literature in English. Other successes include The Suicide Shop by Jean Teulé and Checkout: A Life on the Tills by Anna Sam.

Telegraph Review of Clisson and Eugenie by Napoleon Bonaparte:

What we have in Clisson and Eug?nie is a scholarly reconstruction of the various fragments and drafts of the original text, whose manuscript leaves have been scattered everywhere from Paris and New York to Moscow, Santa Barbara and Milan. As translator and editor of this new English edition, claimed by its publishers as definitive, Peter Hicks and Emilie Barthet have cleverly collated the different false starts and reworkings to create a readable version.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/6501960/Clisson-and-Eugenie-A-Love-Story-by-Napoleon-Bonaparte-review.html

Big Green Bookshop is a fabulous independent bookshop, which opened in March 2008 and has always been very supportive of Gallic Books. Our new partnership is an extension of our current collaboration, based on Simon Key's contention that publishers should publish books and booksellers should sell them. We agree!

So get yourselves over to the Big Green Bookshop to see their window of our books and their dedicated Gallic bookcase. If you cannot get to the bookshop browse their website where all our books can be bought online. You can also contine to place your order through our website, and the orders will be fulfilled by the Big Green Bookshop.

Also, to promote this initiative, we'll be running a competition with a chance to win 2 tickets on Eurostar to Paris. More details will follow soon.

We are delighted to be working in close partnership with a lively independent bookshop and we will be planning author events with them shortly.

Checkout : A Life on the Tills is reviewed in The London Review of Books (22nd October 2009) by Rachel Bowlby author of 'Carried Away'.

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v31/n20/bowl02_.html

Korb and Liliane Lefevre will be reading from their fourth Victor Legris mystery, The Marais Assassin.

Izner is the pen-name of two sisters, Liliane Korb and Laurence Lefevre. Both booksellers on the banks of the Seine, they are experts on nineteenth-century Paris. They have co-written Murder on the Eiffel Tower, The Pere-Lachaise Mystery and The Montmartre Investigation as well their latest mystery The Marais Assassin.

The Marais Assassin: Parisian bookseller, Victor Legris, finds a new case to investigate very close to home, when his business partner's apartment is burgled. Curiously the only item stolen is a decorative goblet of little value. But on learning that two people have been murdered who were connected to to the goblet, Victor becomes convinced of its secret significance. How quickly can he recover it and end the killing spree, in a city beset with terrorist activity? In this fourth case for the bookseller sleuth, Claude Izner offers a convincing portrait of a Paris shaken by anarchist bombings in the spring of 1892.

www.shakespeareandcompany.com

Anna Sam is in London and will have a very busy couple of days. Following on from The Independent piece yesterday, The London Paper will run and interview with Anna this evening. She was interviewed yesterday evening on Radio 2, Chris Evans' show.

This morning she was interviewed live for Radio 4fm with Gareth O'Callaghan. At lunch time today Anna was interviewed by George Alagiah for BBC World TV and will be on BBC 4'S Midweek tomorrow morning from 9am. Again, both live.

The hard work continues on Wednesday with an live interview with Fred MacAulay for BBC Radio Scotland from 10.20 to 10.35 and at noon an interview with BBC Radio Bristol. Phew! Anna signing stock in the Gallic office.

Anna, a police man, Big Ben and The London Paper

We have a limited number of signed copies available if you order direct from us.