Published 2008-02-29 19:33:11

2006 was definitely a big year for Petite Anglaise: "dumped, dooced and outed, but also snagged a book deal" according to her own words.

Petite Anglaise was blogging under anonymous coverage about her life in Paris, that she made home 10 years ago, the familiar expat gripes, and sometime evolving to talk about her relationship and single motherhood, writing always with talent that was awarded several times by satin pyjamas.

Catherine Sanderson (the English Bridget Jones as she was described by the Daily Telegraph) became even more famous the day when the stupid-old fashion company where she was working in, the now condemned British accountancy firm Dixon Wilson, decided to fire her for gross misconduct [1] (that is the name they gave for having a blog).

As the famous French blogger Loic Le Meur said: "again a firm that completely miss out the point" and actually in France as in UK, the reactions where very sharp against the Dixon Wilson (which tempted to back tracked their act) and attracted more than 8000 articles on on Google: influential French blogs where talking about it and supporting Petite Anglaise, here and there, but also the French and UK mainstream media and even International press were giving a lot of exposure to the news. All is well summarized on the blog here.

No surprise (except maybe for the firm) but Dixon Wilson lost and was condamned for unfair dismissal with a large amount of money to be paid (not even talking about its reputation as an employer being completely shattered - look at the 3rd and 4th link here).

But the year was not going to finish there as in the meantime, recognising the high value of her writing, the UK publishing company Penguin signed her for a 2 book deal as it was reveal later on by the Telegraph. The first (link above) is capturing a year in the life and loves of a young single mother abroad. The second book is likely to be a novel.

[Two minute segment on the French national news, 29 April 2007]

[Catherine Sanderson on BBC Breakfast] 

Petite Anglaise has clipped a collection of links talking about the book here.

I definitely recommend!

 

 

 

 Petite Anglaise - US Edition available from June 2008

 

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[1] accused of bringing the company into disrepute due to references to her work, tho never mentioning the name of the firm, she described her boss as "very old school... He wears braces and sock suspenders (although I don't have any firsthand experience of those), stays in gentlemen's clubs when in London, and calls secretaries 'typists.'" Shocking indeed

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