READ A BOOK & PULL A BIRD

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The internet is surely a funny place. The seriously literary tweet above turns up in my Twitter timeline, retweeted by friend, historian and scholar, Felix Larkin.

I was curious on two fronts. What was the French interest in our National Library and I was also intrigued by the very clever moniker which implied a lively interest in literature. Just how lively I was about to find out.

So I clicked on their addy and up came their Twitter profile. Deinitely a serious literary crowd I thought.

So I went one step further and clicked on their website and hey presto.

An amorous nude couple in Michaelangelo marble and the provocative statement to the effect that book readers pull more birds.

Johnny in the news

But enough of that for the moment.

What really caught my eye was a picture of Johnny Halliday in an adjacent news item.

Now, my reaction was probably typical of someone of my advanced age: "Jaysus, is he still alive?".

Well he is and he is in deep shit.

Johnny's recent autobiography

When I was an au pair boy in France in 1963, Johnny was all the rage - the French Elvis.

Along with the equally popular French singer, Sylvie Vartan, he dominated issues of the then new pop magazine "Salut les Copains". He and Sylvie were an item by then. They toured together and married in 1965. The marriage lasted till 1980 and Johnny has gone through a few more wives since then. But in 1963 it was all fresh and innocent.

I learned French words like Cacolac and Velosolex along with some slightly stronger ones from my French protegés. But that's a whole nudder story.

Johnny has now published his autobiography, "Dans Mes Yeux", in which he has some not very nice things to say about his third, last but one, wife Adeline Bandieau.

Johnny & Adeline in happier times

He described her as "vile", "hysterical" and "fickle" and went on to accuse her of having been unfaithful and having it off with those little punks in Saint Tropez and then acting like butter wouldn't melt in her mouth.

She took him to court for defamation and lost. Apparently, according to the court, this sort of stuff is now run of the mill and so does not seriously affect anyone's reputation. To add insult to injury the publisher awarded her €2.

Her brother, who is a lawyer, then took the case to the appeal court which found for her and Johnny now owes her €2,500.

In the course of all these legal shenanigans she accused Johnny of sexually molesting her when she was 15 and, because this was said in court during a trial, it is privileged and he has no come back.

All a long way from those innocent days in 1963.

But to get back to this serious literature thing. Apparently surveys have shown that people who read books have a better chance of hitting it off and going the whole hog (so to speak).

One of the articles in Actualitté goes even further and suggests (above) that it is unwise to embark on a sexual relationship with a person who does not read books.

At the other end of the literary spectrum, it suggests that should one be lucky enough to pick up a date with a librarian the earth could well move.

Source: Actualitté ; Stock

[Pseudo-legal disclaimer: whatever about librarians in the commercial or academic sector, the total disarray of the material in the illustration above (as used by Actualitté itself) could not be further from the magnificent job being done by our own National Library which I have praised elsewhere.]