Surprise! I've written a book – but not the one that people are expecting. I've actually written... a diet book.
Why, you might wonder, have I done that?
The answer is that when you first move to France – and I'm sure other expats will agree with this – you lose weight, thanks largely to the stress of moving.
And then it starts to creep back on again. Before I knew it, I'd gained ten kilos (1 stone, 8lb).
Last autumn, I decided that something had to be done.
The answer came to me while reading a biography of Marie Antoinette.
The French queen, I discovered, liked sweet things and ate cake (actually a pastry) for breakfast, along with coffee or hot chocolate.
But according to her chief chambermaid, Madame Campan, she ate very lightly in the evening – nothing but a bowl of broth and a piece of chicken.
The more I read about her eating habits, the more it seemed that the queen knew instinctively what science has recently shown: for example, if you’re going to eat cake, the best time of day to do so is early in the day.
I discovered many other things that Marie Antoinette did, and about the 18th-century diet in general, that are very conducive to weight loss – and possibly the real reasons why (most) French women don’t gain weight.
I didn't mean to write a diet book, but the deeper I delved, the more excited I became.
In addition to historical research, I read over fifty scientific papers while writing 'the cake diet' as one reader has called it.
The result is The Marie Antoinette Diet (MAD for short, yes I know!)
It is not your usual diet book. It's written, in part, as a memoir, but served up with a lot of science and sprinkled with some interesting historical snippets.
It explains among other things, the benefits of following a 12-hour night fast and the very unfashionable super-food that can help weight loss if eaten once a week.
It also contains recipes for delicious cakes and soups, including the 18th-century recipe for the broth that Marie Antoinette ate for dinner, which is believed in many cultures to have astonishing health benefits.
I’m not a dietician or a doctor, but because I wanted the diet to be as healthy as possible and safe for others to follow, I consulted someone who is: leading dietician Dr. Mabel Blades.
But does it work? Well, the book explains how I lost ten kilos in ten weeks, eating normally most of the time but following a few simple rules. And yes, I did eat (homemade) cake.
The Marie Antoinette Diet: Eat Cake and Still Lose Weight, is available in e-book format, at an introductory price of £1.98 until 7 July, from www.amazon.co.uk and on www.amazon.com. The print version will be published in January 2014.
Two years ago I hung up my high heels, put the Prada handbags into storage and left behind my fashionable West London life to renovate an old village house in rural France. Et voila. This blog is about what happened next....
I cant believe that this new MAD book has solved my addiction for cakes and my sweetooth.
A diet of my dreams .....Thank you sooooooooooooo much Karen.
I will let you know the outcome.
Just one little question that my friends and family keep asking , when is your next book to follow Tout Soul ?
We are all desperate for some more good antics????