The French Boy
McCall, Andrew. The French Boy. First American Edition. 1968. Book and dust jacket are both in very good condition—previous owner’s name is discreetly written on the flyleaf.
Cool Britannia becomes “Camp” Britannia in this entertaining novel set in Swinging London of the 1960s. The hero of the story is a devastatingly handsome but innocent French youth who begins humbly as an au pair for a middle class London couple. However, his good looks assure he is not there for long. Infatuated women and men enable him to stumble into the upper levels of English society. It is possible the novel is autobiographical. The author’s photograph on the back cover suggests the sort of devastatingly handsome boy portrayed in the book. Moreover, the blurb about him lists a variety of high glamour jobs he held as a youth living in London.
"Jacques was astonished at her gaiety. He thought it extraordinary for a woman to take to adultery so calmly after more than twenty years of fidelity and, he supposed, frustration.”