Born in England, Barry A. Whittingham is an honours graduate in French language and literature.  His first job was with a brewery but he soon realized that beer wasn’t his cup of tea. As a French schoolmaster he came to France on a teacher exchange. And he never went back. His fifty years of mainly peaceful co-habitation with the French have given him a rare insight into those things that divide two countries separated by a swimmable stretch of shallow brine but mentally vast oceans apart. A French Dream and A French Escape are the first two ‘reality fiction’ novels in a planned trilogy. Barry divides his time between golf, gardening, foreign travel, 19th century French, English and American fiction … and, of course, creative writing. He leads a meditative life with his French partner, Renée, amidst the breathtaking mountains of the Jura region of Eastern France.