She was the first woman President of the Académie Goncourt, and when she died, aged 81, she was given a state funeral and buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. Her writing, which included novels, portraits, essays and a large body of autobiographical prose, was admired by Proust and Gide. Chéri is an attractive wealthy young man who has been coached for six years in the art of love by middle-aged courtesan Léa. She had a love affair with Napoleon’s niece, married twice more, had a baby at 40 and at 47. Chéri is one of Colette’s better known works, so I already knew the rough storyline before finally reading this, but as always her language is as much the attraction as her stories. Colettte left Willy in 1906 and worked in music-halls as an actor and dancer. By locking her in her room, Willy forced Collette to write her first novels (the Claudine sequence), which he published under his name. At the age of twenty she moved to Paris with her first husband, the notorious writer and critic Henry Gauthier-Villas (Willy). She was born in Burgundy on 1873 into a home overflowing with dogs, cats and children, and educated at the local village school. In the meantime she wrote stunning novels that were admired by Proust and Gide Gigi, Sido, Cheri, and Break of Day. Colette, the creator of Claudine, Cheri and Gigi, and one of France’s outstanding writers, had a long, varied and active life. Colette had a lesbian love affair with a niece of Napoleon's, she married three times, had a baby at 40 and at 47, preferring 'passion to goodness', she seduced her teenage stepson.

Chéri by colette