Les Ecrivains de Marine

were in Malta recently on

the invitation of French Ambassador Daniel Rondeau who was one of the first writers to join this group. Joe Demanuele,

with his camera, joined

them for the day

Les Ecrivains de Marine was set up by Jean-François Deniau in partnership with the French navy in 2003. The purpose of this association is to help in the spreading and preservation of marine cultural heritage. Les Ecrivains de Marine is composed of twenty writers from different backgrounds and all have in common marine knowledge and sailing skills. All of them are men but for one woman. They co-opt new members under the aegis of the French navy’s chief of staff.

During lunch and the subsequent visit to the Maritime museum in Vittoriosa I spoke to each of them in turn.

Didier Decoin, President: “I think my need for putting the smell of salt water and boats in my books comes from there”. “There” refers to Simenon de la mer that Didier Decoin read in his youth and that he likes to keep close to him, like the sea. He started working as a journalist with French newspapers France-Soir, Le Figaro, Nouvelles Littéraires and the French radio Europe 1. He started writing novels, and with his work John l’Enfer he won the Prix Goncourt. As a member of the Academie Goncourt and its president since 1995, he presided over this prestigious organization twice and he set up the Civil Society of Multimédia Authors (SCAM) as well. He is also a scriptwriter and works for both the cinema (with Marcel Carné, Robert Enrico, Henri Verneuil and Maroun Bagdadi) and television. His last book is Avec vue sur la mer with which he won the Prix Henri Queffélec in 2006.

Patrick Poivre d’Arvor, Vice Chairman was born in 1947 and is both a journalist and writer. He is deputy president for news at the French channel TF1 and its famous anchorman since 1987. While announcing the weekday news of the French channel TF1 at 8 p.m for 25 years, Patrick Poivre d’Arvor didn’t lose his three passions which are journalism, literature and the sea. He is probably the most famous TV journalist on French TV and also a producer and TV presenter of such well-known literary programmes as Ex Libris and Vol de Nuit. A prolific writer, with around 30 novels to his name, some of which were written with his brother Oliver Poivre d’Arvor, Patrick published his first bestseller at the age of 16 years. A prolific writer he has written biographies of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the corsair Robert Surcouf, Vasco de Gama, Lawrence d’Arabie and Jules Vernes. In November 2000, he won the literary prize “Interallié”.

François Bellec is Secretary-General: He attained the rank of Rear-admiral in the French navy and then redirected his career and became director of the Musée de la Marine from 1980 to 1997. He is a member of l’Académie de Marine, which he presided from 2002 to 2004, and was elected member of the section Arts-Lettres-Sciences de l’Académia de Marinha du Portugal. In parallel, he led an artistic career, he won the prize Puvis de Chavannes in 1992. He is officially a member of marine painters and had the honour of drawing the marine writers’ seal. He presided over the National Fine Arts Society and is deputy president of Historical Salons. He published about twenty books about maritime history and culture, many of which have been translated into Portuguese, German, and English. M. Bellec has participated in various collective works and encyclopedias. He has been awarded many prizes such as Le Grand prix du Livre Maritime in 1987.

Loïc Finaz feels he is the re-incarnation of Pierre Loti, the famous French novelist and naval officer. Like his illustrious predecessor, he was a maritime officer when he was nominated to the Academie Française. Born in 1962, this writer has the rank of captain. His last book L’or du soir is a collection of poems.

Yann Queffélec recounts that when mooring his boat, François Verny, “the pope of publishing houses”, tapped him on the shoulder and said : “You, you’ve got the face of a writer! I’ll invite you to my birthday party!” That’s the story which lead Yann Queffélec to dedicate himself to writing. He was 32 then. Françoise Verny was not wrong because four years later he won the Prix Goncourt in 1985 for his book Les Noces barbares, which was an enormous success for him as an author and sea lover.

Olivier Frébourg is the son of a master mariner and literary director of the publishing house Table Ronde. He has just set up his own publishing house Les Editions des Equateurs. M. Frébourg has worked as a reporter for many French magazines like Géo, Vogue, Le Figaro magazine and Grands Reportages. He was awarded the Prix Deux-Magots in 1990 for his book Roger Nimier, trafiquant d’insolence as well as the Prix Henri-Queffélec and the Prix François-Mauriac from the French Academy for his book Port d’attache.