And that's it for today!
Please join me in thanking John for his time and for answering your questions. And thank you for those too!
Next Tuesday marks the start of a new Reading group theme – we’ll put it to a vote then. Happy reading until then.
RoscoBoyle says:
What were your father’s working habits - his daily approach to writing?
Guardian contributor While writing (5 books x 15 days max = 80 days a year): Wake up at 5:00 am, in his den at 6:00 am, writes a chapter longhand (romans durs), out by 11:30 am, reads the newspapers, lunch with the family at 12:30, short siesta at 13:15, back in the den at 14:00, types the morning chapter, out of the office at 17:00, reads the newspapers, helps the kids with their homework, dinner at 18:30, in bed around 21:00
Bellaeditor says:
I am an editor working with children’s authors, two of whom told me recently of their love of the Maigret novels, both working their way through the newly-issued Penguin series. Do have you a view as to what it is about Simenon’s writing that particularly resonates with writers? (And non-writers too of course!)
Guardian contributor I know quite a few writers who admire Simenon, but I never dared ask them. I will next time
DrJohnSilence asks:
1) Did your father aspire to be like the character he created, or was he content in himself?
2) Is there any likelihood in the near future of any film versions of Maigret? In my opinion, the British TV interpretation of Christie’s ABC Murders with John Malkovich as Poirot reinterpreted him for a modern audience well. I think the Maigret novels would lend themselves well to this sort of treatment.
It’s a shame that there aren’t going to be any more Maigrets with Rowan Atkinson, by the way!
Guardian contributor 1. My father was certainly not content in himself, and most of his characters, except Maigret, are like him
2. A French feature film starring Depardieu was announced
3. I agree
LeatherCol has another question:
I was wondering how Belgian, as opposed to French or Swiss, your father may have felt or whether that didn’t mean very much to him?
Guardian contributor My father felt first and foremost from Outremeuse, a populous district of Liège where he lived as a child. But he never felt strong nationalistic bonds with any country.
Guardian contributor Having said that, you find Liège in many novels that don't even take place there
Updated
'He fought hard, and mostly managed, to preserve his and the family’s private lives'
siancain asks:
Was your father’s fame very noticeable to you when you were a child? And was he at ease with it?
Guardian contributor It was very noticeable of course, but that was part of our lives, and it is only later that I realised how exceptional that was. As for my father, I believe he accepted it as something to be grateful to his readers for, but he also fought hard, and mostly managed, to preserve his and the family’s private lives, at least until his separation with my mother.
LeatherCol is reading Julian Barnes’s excellent The Man in the Red Coat:
In it he talks (predictably) of Flaubert, and something he says reminded me very much of reading Simenon: “‘You cannot change humanity; you can only know it’” ... so did Simenon enjoy reading Flaubert?
Guardian contributor Yes, and Maupassant, and you will not be surprised to know that Julian Barnes is also a great Simenon fan.
Feboke asks:
Je souhaiterais savoir quel est l’état d’avancement des pourparlers avec la ville de Liège en ce qui concerne la création d’un ensemble muséal Georges Simenon dans sa ville natale. Et aussi vous demander, quelle est à votre avis , la meilleure biographie de votre père.
(Feboke asks how talks are going on the creation of a museum collection in George Simenon’s home town of Liège ... And also which biography of his father John thinks is the best.)
Guardian contributor Les discussions sont au point mort, et la meilleure bio est celle de Pierre Assouline
(the discussions are at a standstill and the best bio is by Pierre Assouline)
'A typical novel, 10 chapters long, would take my father 10 days to write'
markmartin says:
It’s said that, when your father was preparing a novel he spent much time preparing detailed notes on the characters, but when he actually wrote the novel he went into seclusion and wrote at great speed to complete it in a single (long) sitting. I heard that if he was disturbed he abandoned the novel.
Was this (always) the case? Do you have memories of this? Was he very different when preparing a novel? What was it like for the rest of house when he was writing?
Guardian contributor In general, the notes were not that detailed, as they usually fitted on the back of an A4 yellow envelope. They consisted mostly of lists of names, some biographical elements about the characters, rough sketches of a few locations, and that was about it. A typical novel, 10 chapters long, would take my father 10 days to write, one chapter a day. According to his diaries, he did interrupt a few novels for health reasons, but only for one or two days, and that was before returning to Europe in 1955. After that, I don’t recall any interruption. As for the fact that he became irritable just before and after a novel, it may have been true, but he certainly didn’t show it.
Our own samjordison has a question about English translations:
Are there more in the pipeline, following the Maigret series? And are there books of your father’s outside the Maigret novels that you feel should be better known?
Guardian contributor Yes, Penguin will now turn to the "romans durs", but we still have to work on the schedule of releases
WalterReichert says:
A pal asked on John Steinbeck’s recent birthday if there was a writer that came close to capturing the American West as Steinbeck did – and I said Simenon. His Arizona novels are as penetrating and objective as the white midday desert sun. Thankfully Maigret at the Coroner’s is in print. While The Bottom of the Bottle isn’t – any plans to get that re-pub’d soon? I hope. Thank you.
Guardian contributor Le Fond de la bouteille is definitely one of my favorite “roman dur”. It deserves to be rediscovered in English, and I will bring that up when I next discuss with Penguin their plans for the “romans durs”
RichR14 says:
Your father wrote about lots of places in his novels. Did he travel a lots to research his books, and did you accompany him?
Guardian contributor My father lived a nomadic life, and indeed travelled and moved a lot around the world, but not to do any specific research for his novels, which he never did, but to live and absorb as many lives as possible to become the substance of his novels.
'He would have been incapable of recommending any of his novels'
Are there any novels in your father’s Maigret series that were his particular favourites or that he recommended as good introductions to his Maigret? Thank you for participating in this chat.
Guardian contributor My father claimed that the only time he was ever somewhat satisfied with any of his novels was just after having written them. After that, he invariably felt they fell short of his original expectations. He would, therefore, have been incapable of recommending any.
'One of my great joys is that, over the last 20 years, the average age of readers has fallen below 45'
allworthy asks:
What are the challenges of managing a literary estate? Is there a readership or audience you would like to reach in the future?
Guardian contributor Challenges are multiple and varied: working with publishers around the world to sustain readership in successful countries and increase readership in others, negotiating film/TV/stage adaptations, coordinating promotional activities worldwide (while sometimes participating in them) all the while trying to stay true to the characteristics and qualities of the original works.
One of my great joys is that, over the last 20 years, the average age of readers has fallen below 45, and female readers have overtaken male ones in most major countries.
The challenge is to interest younger adults as they go through enough personal experiences to relate emotionally to the unsettling but at the same time reassuring image reflected by the mirror Simenon extends to them,
SirClemdeBrulay says:
In Pietr the Latvian a very modern criminal milieu is described with a prescient focus on international cartels, smuggling (booze), specific functions such as murder hived off to specialists (Murder Inc in NY, for example) ... who told your dad about this world, far transcending the bad eggs who murder in the library for inheritances and the like?
Guardian contributor Pietr le Letton being one of the first novel of the Maigret series, it is very unlikely that my father had already met top brass at the Quai des Orfèvres. I am afraid I don’t have a good answer to that very good comment and question.
'He stopped reading fiction after creating Maigret in the early ’30s'
Captain_Flint asks:
What kind of literature did your father enjoy reading most? I thought I caught glimpses of stream-of-consciousness narrative in La neige était sale (a novel I know you also appreciate immensely) and was wondering if he had any liking for modernist prose.
Guardian contributor Essentially Gogol, Dostoyevski, Chekov, Conrad, Stevenson, Steinbeck. With a few exceptions, he stopped reading fiction after creating Maigret in the early ’30s. He had no affinity with what the “nouveau roman” movement stood for.
cheznice asks:
Is it true that your father based Maigret’s pleasure in food and drink on your grandfather’s enjoyment of simple things. I’m thinking of descriptions of him savouring beer, plum brandy, blanquette de veau etc.
Guardian contributor There are many of Maigret’s traits that come from my grand father, but not his culinary tastes, which are closer to my Dad’s
theupsetappletart says:
In the Maigret novels I’ve read, the majority of characters seem to be lonely, isolated, with little or no sense of belonging.
In Maigret himself, this loneliness manifests itself as his own strength, detachment, objectivity, and yet tempered with a sense of empathy. In other words, Maigret can coolly dissect awful human imperfections at a professional distance, while relating to them on an emotional level.
In the victims of crime, on the other hand, and in many of the tangential characters, the loneliness manifests itself not as strength but rather as vulnerability, despair, exclusion, disappointment, regrets, sorrow. Their loneliness has destroyed their defenses.
Do you see these nuanced views of loneliness as a major characteristic of the Maigret novels? Or is something else going on?
If loneliness is a predominant theme, or mood, or driver of character, ... where did these views of loneliness come from in M Simenon’s writing? Did they come from life? From French literary traditions? From dominant trends in mainstream literature of the time?
Guardian contributor Loneliness, and the need to escape the alienation from everyday life that creates such loneliness, are indeed a recurring theme in Maigret and non Maigret novels. Maigret, on the other hand, is not lonely: he lives very satisfying private and professional lives, and his investigations are often his own antidote to the occasional bursts of alienation he can experience himself. These themes, like all other themes in my father’s novels, came from his extremely sensitive perception and his own early experiences and later struggles in life.
markmartin asks:
Your father is known to have been displeased with some of the translations of his work into English. However (until recently) the same translations have been used for several decades across many editions in both the UK and US. Have any ever been refused republication by you or your father?
Guardian contributor I found in my archives a particularly heated exchange of letters between my father and Geoffrey Sainsbury, which led to the end of Sainsbury’s collaboration. Sainsbury was vain, pretentious and unrepentant. As for me, I am lucky that Penguin has chosen a roster of great translators, whom I admire and enjoy.
LeatherCol asks:
You say that in his work Simenon “attempted to create the image of mankind and Maigret in a nutshell: his empathy, his interest for other people”, both of which feel right to me and are part of what makes him so rewarding to read. But ... for me, the combination of his deftness with words (which is really exciting: just, as a reader, to experience that skill is extraordinary), and your two insights, make his writing compellingly bleak and remorselessly comfortless: his empathy doesn’t save the characters or make us feel better but serves to underline the sadnesses and problems.
Simenon seems to have been remarkably businesslike and formulaic in how he created (at least with Maigret) and very prolific. I have an image of him as a man who was always confident in his ability to write, and not given to doubt about an imperative to reflect his vision of mankind to act as a moral mirror for the reader. Would you say that was true? And, a second quick question: which writers did he admire?
Guardian contributor 1. II think Maigret’s empathy can sometimes help save some characters
2. If my father was indeed very business-like in dealing with the business of his craft, you will find it hard to convince me that he was formulaic in the creation of Maigret.
3. As for your image of my father as a person, well, it is very different from the person I actually knew.
4. My father was extremely suspicious of “morals’ and “morality”, which change with time and place. Being an individualist, “ethics” was more relevant to him
4. Writers: Essentially Gogol, Dostoyevski, Chekov, Conrad, Stevenson, Steinbeck (Sartre and Camus came too late for him to read them, but he disliked Sartre’s pretentiousness and would certainly have admired Camus as Camus admired him. Although Colette indeed had a great influence on him, I am not sure he ever read her novels, just like I don’t think he read Gide’s either.
Feel free to ask questions in French!
A quick note for people wanting to post in French - please do! Bienvenu! Will do my best to translate and John will be able to answer in English or French. Apologies to the person who was moderated earlier!
RoscoBoyle says:
At school (long ago) we read Le Pendu de Saint-Pholien as a French language text. Are any Simenon books still in use in educational settings?
(Le Pendu de Saint-Pholien is translated as The Crime of Inspector Maigret).
Guardian contributor Not to my knowledge, and I was told they stopped teaching French literature in the UK, and even any non-English literature altogether, some years ago… Perhaps that was an early sign of a cultural Brexit? ��
Karlos_Nagasaki asks:
According to your understanding of your father’s conception of Maigret, which of the actors, dating back to 1932, came the closest to capturing the essence of the character?
And, which one was the least compelling, and why?
By extension, which of the film or television adaptations do you consider the most faithful to the spirit of the books? Does your opinion differ from your father’s?
Guardian contributor 1. Closest Maigret: Pierre Renoir, Michel Simon 2. Least compelling: Albert Préjean 3. Films: La nuit du carrefour by Jean Renoir, with Pierre Renoir, and La tête d’un homme by Julien Duvivier with Harry Baur. TV: Bruno Cremer (France) 4. I believe so, except for Cremer as my father died before it was produced.
'My father certainly had great respect for Poe and Conan Doyle, but he was not really interested in solving crimes'
deadgod asks:
What did M. Simenon think of other (‘rival’) whydunnit people-solvers? Did he have favourites and bêtes noires among Poe, Doyle, Chandler, and so on? and what were his reasons? Do you, and what are yours?
Guardian contributor My father certainly had great respect for Poe and Conan Doyle, but he was not really interested in solving crimes, more, as one critic pointed out, in solving people. As for Chandler, he stopped reading novels before Chandler was translated into French
Notmytype asks:
I believe that when Georges Simenon saw Rupert Davies in the role on Maigret on TV he exclaimed “C’est Maigret! You are the flesh and bones of Maigret.” Does his son John therefore consider a duty that the BBC should unlock its vault and rerun the 52 Maigret episodes languishing there? (At least we should be thankful that they didn’t wipe the tapes like they did with so many other TV treasures).
They also mention that the episodes might be available in Germany still:
According to websites, 36 original Rupert Davies episodes have been released on DVD there on the Pidax Serien-Klassiker label. Sadly, they’ve been dubbed into German and do not have English subtitles – you’d think it would be the other way round!
Guardian contributor It is more complicated than that: the sheer admin. cost of dealing with residuals to musicians and other rights holders and restoration / digitalization is daunting, but it is on my ToDo list to bring this back to life one day. As for the German DVDs, they fell in a legal crack
proust (not that one - I think) writes:
You must be delighted by the two volume Simenon collection (and album) published by the prestigious Editions de la Pleiade in 2003, an accolade given only to the most important writers, with a full scholarly/critical apparatus. It contains some Maigret and also a selection of ‘romans durs’. Sadly Simenon wasn’t published in the Pleiade until after his death.
What did you think of the selection?
Guardian contributor Definitely a good one, but, like any selection, unfair to so many other titles…
nkenny wants to know:
What’s your favourite Maigret novel?
Guardian contributor There a quite a few: Le Charretier de La Providence, Maigret au Picratt’s, La Tête d’un homme, Maigret et la jeune morte, Maigret et le corps sans tête…(I will use the French titles in this chat as I don’t know the UK one by heart)
The English titles are (in order):
The Crime at Lock 14
Maigret in Montmartre (originally Inspector Maigret and the Strangled Stripper)
A Battle of Nerves
Maigret and the Young Girl
Maigret and the Headless Corpse
vammyp asks the important question:
I count eleven pipes on the wall plus one in mouth. How many is too many?
Guardian contributor (He did seem to really love a pipe.)
'How much insight into women can any male writer really have, and vice versa?'
SheerContent asks:
I love all the books, and above all the power of the Maigret character, relentless and unpitying. I feel I know little about who he is, but I see into his mind, if that makes sense.
However, women are generally so sketchily drawn. Mrs Maigret’s only function, more or less, is to put food on the table and to say nothing if Mr does not come home. There are women in other books (including some of the most fascinating), but I do feel they are very much the object of Simeon’s scrutiny as a man (the male gaze): he has very little insight into women, so they come across almost as caricatures to me. Can you shed any light on his very different insights into how women ‘work’, and how men ‘work’?
Guardian contributor Fundamental incommunicability between men and women is one of my father’s recurring theme. Also, how much insight into women can any male writer really have, and vice versa? In any case, in reading groups and other meetings, I had the opportunity to meet many women who would disagree with you about Marguerite in Le Chat, Tante Jeanne, Bébé Donge, Louise Laboine in Maigret et la jeune morte, Aline Callas in Maigret et le corps sans tête, Arlette in Maigret au Picratt’s, Louise Maigret in Le Fou de Bergerac…��
And we're live! John Simenon is with us now
Guardian staff Hello everyone!
John is standing by and ready to start answering ... Thank you for all the excellent questions that have already come in. He's already got his work cut out.... But do please keep them coming!
Join us on Friday 28 February at 1pm GMT
I’m very pleased to say that John Simenon, son of famous Belgian novelist Georges Simenon – the subject of the reading group this past month – will be joining us for a webchat on 28 February at 1pm GMT.
As well as working in the film industry since the 1970s, John has managed the literary estate of his father for more than 25 years. He is the moral rights director of the Georges Simenon estate and has been closely involved with the recent Penguin translation series, which has provided so much pleasure and fruitful discussion for us.
The work of managing such a huge and culturally vital estate sounds fascinating. Simenon’s hundreds of books have been translated into more than 50 languages. “Since I manage his estate and negotiate with publishers and film producers all over the world, I get weekly requests for translations and adaptations of Simenon titles I’d never even heard of,” John has said.
There are also dozens of film, TV and radio adaptations of his stories and John has worked on many of them, including the recent Rowan Atkinson Maigret series. John can also provide insights into his father as a person. He has said, for instance, that he would go for long walks with Georges every day when he was a teenager and that “they gave me a very intuitive knowledge of who he was”.
My father was an obsédé of life and literature … He refused to camouflage his own weaknesses, magnifying them instead. If he was weak, his characters were weak. If he felt strong, he wrote strong characters. In short, he attempted to create the image of mankind. My father was himself his most compelling character.
John can also provide insight into his father’s most famous creation, Inspector Maigret. “There are two short ways to characterise the Maigret novels,” he has said. “One is to say Maigret does not solve crimes but solves people. And the other is to say his stories are not whodunnits but whydunnits. That is what I would say defines Maigret in a nutshell: his empathy, his interest for other people.”
We’re fortunate that such a unique authority will be able to speak to us. If you have a question you’d like to ask John Simenon, please post it in the comments below now. He will be with us answering from 1pm GMT on Friday 28 February but feel free to get yours in early.
Well, it looks like we've overextended our time, so bye for now and thank you for a very rich and exciting exchange