The pandemic lockdown has meant many changes and restrictions for everyone, but a professional linguist and a local illustrator were determined to make the time a positive one. In a collaboration of their very different talents, Clare Jones and Tamsin Edwards concentrated on completing the project that they had been working on, to proudly publish their informative but fun language-learning guide, Mustn’t Push Granny in the Nettles: 200 French Expressions.
Clare is a passionate Francophile, and has designed the book to help learners of French at home, school, evening class or university, to get truly acquainted with the richness of the language. In her own words, Clare says, “Make your French sound more natural and understand more of the fi gurative language the French use every day, such as Il ne faut pas pousser mémé dans les orties!” Literally translated the expression is ‘you must not push granny in the nettles’! Its meaning is not to push things too far.
Clare’s book has been diligently researched and includes 200 expressions on food and drink, love, laughter, health and happiness. Her aim is to help lovers of the language to learn to speak like the French, preferably without a cat in their throat and a hair on their tongue! It allows readers to deepen their knowledge by understanding the origins and cultural signifi cance of the idioms, and has a fun multi- choice quiz at the end of each chapter.
Wanting very much for the book to be humorous as well as educational, Clare enlisted the talents of artist Tamsin Edwards, whose illustrations are known for their charming quirkiness. “It is important not to make learning dry and diffi cult” explained Tamsin, “so I very much designed the images to have the emphasis on FUN”. Dotted throughout the pages, the quirky descriptive pictures help keep the reader’s mind focussed.
Mustn’t Push Granny in the Nettles is their second book together, the fi rst in the series being Je mourrai moins bête: 200 French expressions to help you die less stupid, which has just been released as a second edition.
Both books are available as an e-book and paperback, and easily available on Amazon as well as from Oundle Bookshop. For more information and to be able to download a chapter of the fi rst book for FREE, please visit www.fi gureoutfrench.com. For more information about Clare as a tutor, please visit www.frenchtuition-northants.co.uk.
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