I’ve just started a new project, creating a free audio edition of Two Men in a Car (A Businessman, a Chauffeur, and Their Holidays in France). The book has long been out of print, but used copies sometimes turn up for sale on Amazon and elsewhere. At the moment only one copy is available, here, a steal at only £108.95. The Kindle edition costs a paltry £5.94.
I’ve always had a soft spot for the book, which was published in 2008. It covers a period of time when I had much more money than after I decided to become a full-time MRA, a couple of years after the book’s publication. From the back cover:
‘Mike Buchanan is the best kind of opinionated, middle-aged, middle-class Englishman abroad: the funny kind.’ Andy Heslop
‘If you have a sense of humour, this book will put a big smile on your face. I laughed out loud many times. A refreshing absence of political correctness.’ The lovely Maureen Padley
Political correctness is a curse of the modern era. This book is not politically correct. And it celebrates la belle France: the beautiful ladies, the fine food and wine, the glorious scenery and weather, and more besides. If you’re offended by the book’s contents, kindly moan about it to someone else, not the author. He’s had more than his fill of being moaned at over the years.
Mike Buchanan is a 50-year-old overweight diabetic short-sighted businessman and published author, who lives in Bedford. He’s been a Francophile for as long as he can remember, and is rarely happier than when holidaying in France. In August 2007, following the breakdown of his second marriage, he took a holiday in France with his chauffeur, the (equally) politically-incorrect Thunderin’ Paul Carrington. The two men enjoyed themselves so much that they took a second holiday in France in July 2008. This book relates the story of both holidays, in chapters with the following titles:
1 Our first week with Anne and Mark Phillips
2 Why my dinner cost 40 times more than Paul’s
3 Hobnobbing with Ivana Trump in Monte Carlo
4 ‘Would you like to have sex with my wife?’
5 We witness a miracle in Lourdes
6 In defence of pâte de foie gras
7 Paul worries about becoming a gay icon
8 Nuits-St-Georges is twinned with Hitchin
9 ‘It’s always better if you have a big one!’
Epilogue
Apx 1 Packing list for France
Apx 2 Keith Floyd’s Boeuf a la Bourguignonne
Apx 3 Raymond Blanc’s Coq au Vin
Apx 4 Mike Buchanan’s Coq au Vin
Apx 5 The Fat Duck: Tasting Menu and Wine
Apx 6 Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons: Notre Menu Decouverte
Apx 7 Extract from the autobiographical chapter of (Thunderin’) Paul Carrington, from Guitar Gods in Beds. (Bedfordshire: A Heavenly County)
Both the paperback and ebook editions of the book contain the following plate section:
