Novelist Maurice Druon dies aged 90AFP - Maurice Druon, the prominent novelist and member of the French Academy, the pre-eminent body on the French language, died on Tuesday at the age of 90, the academy said. Druon died at his home, the academy's permanent secretary Helene Carrere d'Encausse told AFP, without elaborating. Born in Paris on April 23, 1918 to a Russian father, Druon was a prolific writer who was elected to the French Academy in 1966 at the age of 48.
AFP - Maurice Druon, the prominent novelist and member of the French Academy, the pre-eminent body on the French language, died on Tuesday at the age of 90, the academy said. Druon died at his home, the academy's permanent secretary Helene Carrere d'Encausse told AFP, without elaborating. Born in Paris on April 23, 1918 to a Russian father, Druon was a prolific writer who was elected to the French Academy in 1966 at the age of 48.
The strains of the French Resistance anthem filled the air yesterday as the country paid tribute to its author, Maurice Druon, a Second World War hero, writer and Anglophile who became the defender-in-chief of the French language. Mr Druon, who broadcast to France from wartime London, died on Tuesday just short of his 91st birthday. President Sarkozy, whose colloqial French appalled Mr Druon, paid tribute to him as "a great writer, Resistance fighter, political figure, wordsmith and a great spirit".
The strains of the French Resistance anthem filled the air yesterday as the country paid tribute to its author, Maurice Druon, a Second World War hero, writer and Anglophile who became the defender-in-chief of the French language.
Mr Druon, who broadcast to France from wartime London, died on Tuesday just short of his 91st birthday.
President Sarkozy, whose colloqial French appalled Mr Druon, paid tribute to him as "a great writer, Resistance fighter, political figure, wordsmith and a great spirit".
After attempting to remove the gloss from Barack Obama, President Sarkozy of France upset Spain today by suggesting that Jose-Luis Zapatero, the Prime Minister, was a little dim. Mr Sarkozy's latest put-down of fellow leaders emerged from a Wednesday lunch meeting with MPs at which he again boasted of what he sees as his pivotal role in the G20 summit. He cast President Obama as inexperienced and ineffectual - a line that he has taken in private since the the London meeting and the Nato gathering in Strasbourg that followed it. Mr Sarkozy noted that Spain's Socialist government had just announced the end of advertising on state television, a year after Mr Sarkozy did the same for France. "And you know who they cited as the example?" he asked the 24 MPs around his lunch table at the Elysée Palace, according to an account in the Libération newspaper.
After attempting to remove the gloss from Barack Obama, President Sarkozy of France upset Spain today by suggesting that Jose-Luis Zapatero, the Prime Minister, was a little dim.
Mr Sarkozy's latest put-down of fellow leaders emerged from a Wednesday lunch meeting with MPs at which he again boasted of what he sees as his pivotal role in the G20 summit. He cast President Obama as inexperienced and ineffectual - a line that he has taken in private since the the London meeting and the Nato gathering in Strasbourg that followed it.
Mr Sarkozy noted that Spain's Socialist government had just announced the end of advertising on state television, a year after Mr Sarkozy did the same for France.
"And you know who they cited as the example?" he asked the 24 MPs around his lunch table at the Elysée Palace, according to an account in the Libération newspaper.
