Louise Franklin’s enchanting and witty book Bananas in Bordeaux sparkles with humour, warmth and a sheer love of life. A tour-de-force of comic writing, it tells the tale of 12 months when the author’s life changes forever. Putting away her career-woman’s Filofax, the English-born 25-year-old, living in Bordeaux with her French husband, Eric, takes a plain notebook and starts to write and illustrate her hilarious and often moving diary. When they decide to ditch city living for a taste of self sufficiency, everyday mundane becomes a source of uniquely eloquent entertainment.

(Excerpt from The Bristol Evening Post 27th Jan 2010)

The story of Bristol-born mum-of-two Louise Franklin is an epic love story. Only the love of Louise's life is France and the French way of life.

The 37-year-old Francophile first fell in love with the country when her parents took her away from her Bristol home to live near Bordeaux for three years at the age of nine.

By the time she was 12, and her parents – both doctors – were ready to return from their extended sabbatical across the Channel, Louise had not only fallen in love with the Gallic nation, but had also become fluent in the French language.

"We came back to England but there was always something calling me back to France."

After three years at university in London – studying French, of course – Louise decided she would move to France permanently.

"I was fond of Bristol and it's not that I didn't want to go home to the West Country. But the draw to go back to Bordeaux was stronger," she says.

"It was 1994 and Britain was still obsessed by Peter Mayle's A Year In Provence. There were hundreds of British families emigrating across the Channel. Even here in my new home town, Jonzac, just outside Bordeaux, there are dozens of families from the West Country.

"But it didn't take me long to stop feeling like an ex-pat Brit out here. Now, 16 years on, to be honest, I feel more French than British. This is my home now."

Louise married a local man and had two sons. Despite later going through a divorce, Louise never considered returning to England.

In fact, she says her sons, Ben, 12, and Hugo, nine, are both perfectly bilingual but feel themselves to be more French than British.

Despite having two day-jobs – producing a website for local businesses and teaching French to British ex-pats – Louise has also found time to produce her second book. The Book We Cooked is a children's story, which gives a child's eye view of genealogy.

"I started writing it for Ben and Hugo, because I wanted them to have a record of the things that had happened to their family before they were born – simple things like how their grandparents met and things that they did when they were little.

"We liked it so much, we thought other children might like to read it, too. Each chapter tells a different story, but giving the ingredients of the story as if it was a cookery book."

Both books are published by Canaan Press - and proceeds will go towards Matt’s Canaan Trust, a charitable organization helping families facing a terminal illness.

"Ben, Hugo and I had great fun putting it together," Louise says. "So it's a real bonus that it's been published and will be making money for such a good cause."