Sign up for our newsletters to receive our Best of 2024 ezine!

Peter Mayle Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Author Biography  | Books by this Author  | Read-Alikes

Peter Mayle

Peter Mayle

Peter Mayle Biography

Peter Mayle (born June 14, 1939 in Brighton) was a British author famous for his series of books detailing life in Provence, France. He spent fifteen years in the advertising industry before leaving the business in 1975 to write educational books, including a series on sex education for children and young people. His 1989 book A Year in Provence became an international bestseller; it chronicled a year in his life as a British expatriate in Ménerbes, a village in the southern département Vaucluse.

His books have been translated into more than twenty languages. He writes for magazines and newspapers. A Year in Provence was produced as a TV series starring John Thaw and screened in 1993. His 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.

British Book Awards named A Year in Provence Best Travel Book of the Year (1989), and Mayle was named Author of the Year (1992). The French government made him a Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur (Knight of the Legion of Honor) in 2002, for coopération et francophonie.

After A Year in Provence, Mayle wrote a number of other books, both nonfiction and fiction, including French Lessons: Adventures With Knife, Fork and Corkscrew (2001), Provence A-Z (2006), and a series of crime novels.

Mayle lived in Provence, France his death in January 2018 aged 78.

Peter Mayle's website

This bio was last updated on 01/19/2018. In a perfect world, we would like to keep all of BookBrowse's biographies up to date, but with many thousands of lives to keep track of it's simply impossible to do. So, if the date of this bio is not recent, you may wish to do an internet search for a more current source, such as the author's website or social media presence. If you are the author or publisher and would like us to update this biography, send the complete text and we will replace the old with the new.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Books by this Author

Books by Peter Mayle at BookBrowse
The Marseille Caper jacket The Vintage Caper jacket Provence A-Z jacket Encore Provence jacket
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Read-Alikes

All the books below are recommended as read-alikes for Peter Mayle but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
How we choose read-alikes

  • Julia Child

    Julia Child

    Julia Child was born in Pasadena, California. She was graduated from Smith College and worked for the OSS during World War II in Ceylon and China, where she met Paul Child. After they married they lived in Paris, where she ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    Encore Provence

    Try:
    My Life in France
    by Julia Child

  • Adam Gopnik

    Adam Gopnik

    Adam Gopnik has been writing for The New Yorker since 1986. During his tenure at the magazine, he has written fiction and humor pieces, book reviews, profiles, reporting pieces, and more than a hundred stories for "The Talk ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    Encore Provence

    Try:
    Paris To The Moon
    by Adam Gopnik

We recommend 9 similar authors

View all 9 Read-Alikes

Non-members can see 2 results. Become a member
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket
    Prophet Song
    by Paul Lynch
    Paul Lynch's 2023 Booker Prize–winning Prophet Song is a speedboat of a novel that hurtles...
  • Book Jacket: The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern
    The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern
    by Lynda Cohen Loigman
    Lynda Cohen Loigman's delightful novel The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern opens in 1987. The titular ...
  • Book Jacket: Small Rain
    Small Rain
    by Garth Greenwell
    At the beginning of Garth Greenwell's novel Small Rain, the protagonist, an unnamed poet in his ...
  • Book Jacket: Daughters of Shandong
    Daughters of Shandong
    by Eve J. Chung
    Daughters of Shandong is the debut novel of Eve J. Chung, a human rights lawyer living in New York. ...

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket
The Berry Pickers
by Amanda Peters
A four-year-old Mi'kmaq girl disappears, leaving a mystery unsolved for fifty years.
Book Jacket
In Our Midst
by Nancy Jensen
In Our Midst follows a German immigrant family’s fight for freedom after their internment post–Pearl Harbor.
Who Said...

To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Big Holiday Wordplay 2024

Enter Now

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.