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Sign up todayThe House in France
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Learn moreSet in Provence, London, and New York, this is a daughter’s wonderfully evocative and witty memoir of her mother and stepfather—Dee Wells, the glamorous and rebellious American journalist, and A. J. Ayer, the celebrated and worldly Oxford philosopher—and the life they lived at the center of absolutely everything.
Gully Wells takes us into the heart of London’s liberated intellectual inner circle of the 1960s. Here are Alan Bennett, Isaiah Berlin, Iris Murdoch, Bertrand Russell, Jonathan Miller, Martin Amis, Christopher Hitchens, Robert Kennedy, and later in New York, Mayor Lindsay and Mike Tyson, her mother as a television commentator earning a reputation for her outspoken style and progressive views, her stepfather—an icon in the world of twentieth-century philosophy—proving himself as prodigious a womanizer as he was a thinker. And throughout, there is La Migoua, the house in France, on a hill between Toulon and Marseilles, where her parents and their friends came together and where Gully herself learned some of the long-lasting lessons of a life well lived.
This is a dazzling portrait of a woman who “caught the spirit of the sixties” and one of the most important intellectual figures of the twentieth century, drawn from the vivid memory of the child who adored them both.
Gully Wells was born in Paris, brought up in London, educated at Oxford, and moved to New York in 1979. She is the features editor of Condé Nast Traveler magazine. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and children. The House in France is her first book.
Rosalyn Landor is an English-born television, theater, and multiple-award-winning audiobook narrator. Her television credits include Love in a Cold Climate, Rumpole of the Bailey, Sherlock Holmes, and Star Trek: The Next Generation. She has won numerous Audie awards and AudioFile magazine Earphones awards.
Reviews
“Travel, celebrity, infidelity—and a generous dose of Provence…fascinating.”
“Gorgeous, smart—indeed, brilliant—utterly captivating. And beautifully written. I can’t think when I’ve enjoyed a memoir so much.”
“This is a superbly entertaining memoir full of delicious anecdote, witty portraiture, and unexpected pathos. I have been dining out for weeks on stories stolen from this volume.”
“Delightful…What makes [Wells’] memoir so distinct is the combination of her voice—erudite, wry, and very funny—and the way her parents’ celebrity worlds influenced her childhood.”
“Hilariously scathing and searingly frank.”
“In her tender, witty memoir, Gully Wells immortalizes her impossibly well-connected parents…and their magical life at a beloved summer home.”
“An engaging tribute…Wells does an excellent job with her portrayal of her mother as a force to be reckoned with.”
“Desire and ambition, creativity and fame, betrayal and love, all take on new dimensions in Wells’ sparkling and spiky look back at protean and brilliant iconoclasts.”
“Gully’s writing is like her marvelous figure—lean, provocative, and built for humor.”
“Gully describes her coming-of-age and her family, friends, and lovers honestly and entertainingly, with plenty of gossipy details…[A] light, engaging literary memoir.”
“The stories of Wells’ mother and Ayer are a delight to read and revealing when dealing with the captivating personalities of their generation, which included, among many others, Christopher Hitchens, Alan Bennett, Bertrand Russell, Iris Murdoch, and Martin Amis.”
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