The Secret Life of France
By Lucy Wadham
Faber £12.99, 280 pages
FT Bookshop price: £10.39

When, as a young student, Lucy Wadham fell in love with a Frenchman and became pregnant, she joined the world of the Parisian bourgeoisie to which her husband belonged.

Though Wadham purports to challenge myths and preconceptions about France, stereotypes are nonetheless recycled here: Parisians drive badly; the pop music is mediocre; everyone has affairs; appearance is everything. These, and other clichés, are disappointing. And the writer’s apparent obsession with Sarkozy, who appears on every other page, is unsettling.

More compelling are the author’s personal anecdotes. There’s a hilarious tale of abandoning an application for French nationality because the civil servant she deals with is so rude. And her insights into the realities of a dual-nationality household are intelligent and entertaining. This engaging book works best when it is not trying to be anything other than a memoir.