Even if - perhaps especially if - you’ve never been within an ass’s roar of Provence, Peter Mayle’s amiable tales of overgrown railway stations, village murders and heated debates over what, exactly, constitutes an authentic bouillabaisse are as seductive as a sunny afternoon in St Saturnin d’Apt. The follow-up to his sensational bestsellers A Year in Provence and Toujours Provence sees Mayle returning to the south after four years - but though he’s older and, no doubt, considerably richer, he doesn’t seem a whole lot wiser, which allows him to recreate his ingenu outre style for chapters on how to develop a nose, how to buy a corkscrew and how to while away a summer’s afternoon. If you like your travel writing comforting rather than challenging, it doesn’t come more comfortable than this.
