John Lichfield



Profile:


Full name: John Lichfield

Area of interest: French Society, Culture, Politics

Journals: The Independent

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Website: Independent.co / John Lichfield

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Biography:
Education:

Career: Has reported from France for more than ten years for The Independent Current position/role: Paris correspondent


 * also writes/has written for:

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Awards/Honours: British Press Awards, Foreign Reporter of the Year, 1999

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The Independent:

 * no regular column

Column remit: French Society, Culture, Politics

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Role: Paris correspondent

Pen-name:

Email:

Website: Independent.co / John Lichfield

Commissioning editor:

Day published:

Regularity: Varies

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Articles: 2011

 * can-do spirit is finally taking off'' - Despite the gloom, the French are busily making babies - 24th January
 * favoured autocracy as a bulwark against radical Islam'' - France, Tunisia's former colonial master and closest European ally, has been struggling to adjust to the overnight collapse of an autocratic regime that it long supported - 20th January
 * what ever happened to France's Socialists?'' - President Nicolas Sarkozy will almost certainly run again in 2012, though he has yet to say so. Marine Le Pen said yesterday that she would mount a powerful challenge on the far-right. Centrist candidates are breeding like flies - 17th January
 * terribles and their twins'' - A welcome, and rare, experiment in fraternité - 10th January
 * we looking for a new message – or a new Messiah?'' - France has a new political and philosophical prophet - 7th January



Articles: 2010

 * let’s be beastly to the Belgians'' - I share a distinction with Johnny Hallyday, Audrey Hepburn and a village on the Belgo-Luxembourg border which is nothing but cigarette shops on one side of the street and trees and cows on the other. I am half-Belgian - 27th December
 * is the French left so gauche?'' - The Socialists’ goodish idea has become a vehicle for prolonged party civil war - 13th December
 * exaggerated tale of two cuisines'' - We love to say that French food is not what it is reputed to be - 29th November
 * patriotism and the souring of an honourable tradition'' - The scarlet poppy is a symbol of blood sacrifice and death; it is also a symbol of the stubborn renewal of hope and life - 6th November
 * stands to lose more than Qantas if investigation finds fault'' - The engine failure on the A380 superjumbo is a potentially serious blow to the European aircraft industry – and especially to the British engine-maker Rolls-Royce - 5th November
 * mission has failed'' - Whatever the outcome of the present dispute, Mr Sarkozy has already lost - 20th October
 * needs sceptics'' - When France and Germany saw the EU as themselves writ large, they sought closer union. But as its size increased, the Federalist countries backed off. Is the 'British' idea of a looser alliance of states now Europe's future? - 12th October
 * Le President’s men?'' - The crisis engulfing France's President Sarkozy is drawing comparisons with the Watergate scandal of the 1970s - 15th September
 * en masse: What France can teach us about the Big Society'' - The French love to do their own thing so long as everyone else is doing roughly the same - 24th July
 * Bettencourt affair: Sarkozy's summer of scandal'' - He came to power as a new kind of politician. Now the French President is beset by troubles - 14th July
 * can't bring itself to go forward'' - From the beginning, the great euro crisis has been a confrontation between two versions of reality - 19th June
 * it was McDonald's, now it's primaries'' - Official France likes to boast, Asterix-like, of its resistance to Anglo-Saxon cultural incursions - 4th June
 * European opportunity'' - The Tory leader has an opportunity to wean his party from demonology and present the EU as it really is - 27th May
 * debate and Europe'' - A large blue and yellow elephant had been standing unnoticed in the room of British electoral politics – until last night. Euro-quarrels seem to dominate British politics, except at election time - 23rd April
 * killers and bungalows lead a Norman conquest'' - Normandy Notebook - 12th April
 * deflation of President Sarkozy'' - He is in a double-bind, excoriated more for his rhetoric than for his achievements - 25th March
 * story of the missing 'Picasso''' - Paris Notebook: He left a painting on the studio wall to thank the BBC for having been the voice of freedom in France from 1940-44 - 22nd March
 * lesson, son, in crisis and paradox'' - Why did the banks go after the poor Greeks, Daddy? Good question .. - 15th February
 * down and out in Paris'' - Paris Notebook: On restaurants – a tip - 1st February
 * French about fraternity'' - The casual rudeness which foreigners associate with the French is mostly the fault of the Parisians - 4th January



Articles: 2009

 * First Lady and a down-and-out'' - In another recent TV interview, the Première Dame turned philosopher - 28th December
 * of the Year 2009: The EU'' - Let's hear it for the grand tradition of Euro-muddle - 23rd December
 * society is dead, but long live the cafe'' - Paris Notebook: The cafe is no longer a community in which strangers become, briefly, friends - 30th November
 * hand of Dieu – but with heads hung'' - View from France: Jubilation struggled with embarrassment in France after Thierry Henry's "main de Dieu" qualified les Bleus for the World Cup finals. On the whole, embarrassment won - 20th November
 * ticket may send the rest of Europe to sleep'' - They will be cheering in the bars of Riga and stomping their feet in the pubs of Rotherham. Europe's dynamic duo is... Herman van Rompuy and Baroness Ashton - 20th November
 * a relief to be driving in disguise'' - Parisians, it seems, are choosing to identify with the département of their grand-parents; or their holiday homes - 16th November
 * a kiss is not just a kiss'' - Paris Notebook: The bise, and the handshake, are hard-wired into the French psyche - 14th September
 * neighbours are now a public menace'' - The wild boar population of France has increased five-fold in the last 20 years - 31st August
 * the French are starting to worry about healthcare'' - France has the worst health system in the world, except for all the others I've tried - 27th August
 * French in their maison secondaire'' - For the French middle class, a ‘little place in the country’ is just part of life - 1st August
 * life cycle of the Dutch teenager'' - Emmeloord Notebook: Teenagers chatted each other up by cycling in slow circles, without dismounting - 20th July
 * deaths back on political radar'' - Paris Notebook: I suspect that many radar traps have been switched off to increase the President's popularity rating - 13th July
 * I became chic growing roses and parsnips'' - 21st June
 * can you find France? In 'Le Monde''' - Paris Notebook: There is one great landmark of French life which remains largely itself - 18th May
 * as you've never heard it before'' - Paris Notebook: Did you ever wonder what the French might be for deep backward square leg? Answer: "Barrière oblique côté fermé" - 4th May
 * cleaning is imprisonment'' - Paris Notebook - 10th April
 * Janus face of France's president'' - A bizarre phenomenon is sweeping France: Chirac nostalgia - 6th April
 * shows off his new best friend'' - Obama met O banana in Strasbourg yesterday. Obama you know. But who is O banana? That is a new nickname for Nicolas Sarkozy invented by Plantu, the wonderfully insolent cartoonist of Le Monde - 4th April
 * the French are giving up on lunch'' - Paris Notebook: How is trade? "Terrible", said the patron. "All the publishers have moved offices" - 16th March
 * myth of the cheesemaking peasant'' - 24th February
 * bosses handbag history'' - Paris Notebook - 16th February
 * foes bury the handbag'' - Paris Notebook: This was like King Kong agreeing to have a quiet meal with Godzilla - 26th January
 * daughters' Oscars surely await'' - Paris Notebook: Celebrity at last, my daughters are to appear in a film with George Clooney - 12th January
 * reminder that theatre is booming here'' - British theatre, from William Shakespeare to Howard Barker, is packing in audiences across the Channel - 8th January
 * is the year when the EU awakes'' - With a little energy and leadership, the EU can act like a giant. For a short time anyway - 3rd January



Articles: 2008

 * has all my money gone?'' - Paris Notebook: Try living on a sterling salary in Euroland - 22nd December 2008
 * French learn to love Shakespeare'' - Paris Notebook: The theatre scene across the Channel has become a kind of Paris-upon-Avon - 1st December 2008
 * mud-wrestling, French style'' - Relations on the left are so venomous that schism seems inevitable - 24th November 2008
 * crunch even hits dog-sitters'' - Paris Notebook: Parisian super-wealthy can no longer afford professional dog-sitters when they go to the hairdressers - 10th November 2008
 * that shouldn't come as a surprise'' - Paris Notebook: Would Zidane be considered French if he wasn't picked for the French side? - 20th October 2008
 * of a trainspotter'' - French Notebook: This was an American-designed, Canadian-built, British locomotive operating in France for a German company - 29th September 2008
 * ‘The English power stations – like its girls – are ours’ - After decades of being told that the dirigiste Gallic "model" was doomed to failure, the French cockerel might be excused for crowing over the triumph of Electricité de France - 28th September 2008
 * Notebook: Carla's 'sales' hit by sound of silence'' - A statistical row is raging in France over the true popularity of the First Lady, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy - 15th September 2008
 * Notebook'' - Village life gets a ringing endorsement - 1st September 2008
 * Brittany, a wedding with a difference'' - 14th August 2008
 * Racy goings-on in la France profonde'' - The wife-swapping club comes to rural Normandy - 4th August 2008
 * Out of France: If anyone could win Ireland's Eurosceptics round, it's Ms Bruni - Sunday 20th July 2008
 * With the Taoiseach in the naughty chair, this was a polite mad hatter's tea party - Friday 20th June 2008
 * Our Man In Paris: Threat to suburban pleasures of a petite Parisienne - Monday 9th June 2008
 * Our Man in Normandy: Sarkozy to fight defeatism on the beaches - Monday 5th May 2008
 * France still can't confront its wartime self - Saturday 26th April 2008
 * Paris prepares to fall – and the rest of France cheers - Saturday 19th April 2008
 * Our Man in Paris: An invitation no mere foreigner can refuse - Monday 31st March 2008
 * Our Man in Paris: France warms to its ‘frozen north’ - Monday 3rd March 2008
 * Our Man in Paris: Case of the literary murder inquiries that don't stack up - 4th Febuary 2008
 * President Sarkozy's new philosophy for the world - 16th January 2008
 * Shunted off in a tale of two railways - While British trains are a byword for chaos, vision and flair are the French way - 5th January 2008

