About Us
My name is Sam Taylor and I'm a novelist and former journalist. I live with my French wife Odile and our three sons in a beautiful, rural corner of southern France.
I was a journalist in the UK for nine years. I worked as a writer and editor at the Observer, and I also wrote (and still write) freelance articles for a range of publications including Vogue, Esquire, Q, the Guardian, the Daily Telegraph, the London Evening Standard, and the Glasgow Sunday Herald.
In 2001 I quit my job and we moved to France. If you want to know in more detail our reasons for making this move, you can click on the photograph to the right, but essentially it was a desire to escape the rat race, to move somewhere with more space and nature and sunshine, and because I had always wanted to write fiction.
My first novel, The Republic of Trees, was published by Faber in 2005. It was translated into Italian, Korean, Hungarian and German, and it has been made into a film (entitled All Good Children) which has been selected for screening at Cannes this year.
My second novel, The Amnesiac, came out in 2007. It was translated into French, Russian and Turkish, and was published in the United States by Penguin.
My third novel, The Island at the End of the World, was published in 2009 in the UK, France and America, and got lots of nice reviews. The film rights have been sold and the screenplay is currently in development.
My fourth novel will come out next year, and I'm currently researching the fifth, but I'll tell you a bit more about those when you come out on the course.
As well as being a writer, I also coach tennis to local children, and would be happy to help you with your serve and volley if you need a break from the writing!
My wife Odile teaches French to many local English (and Scottish and Welsh and Irish and German and Dutch) people, and if you or anyone travelling with you would like to learn French while you're here, that can also be arranged. Please go to the FRENCH COURSES page for more details.
To learn more about me and my books, you can go to www.sam-taylor.com.