Travellers tales and classroom verses, memorable meals and unforgettable characters - with words and dreams by Laurence Phillips, the world is a pretty good place to be.

Whether you know him as a fellow traveller or a classroom favourite, a voice on Radio Four or your guide through the more eccentric corners of France ... read on and find another book for your favourites shelf.

Playwright, lyricist, award-winning author and children's poet, Laurence Phillips combines a passion for the stage with an infectious wanderlust. Laurence has been escaping to France since boyhood and has written many and varied books about the country. He has been described by the French press as a charming bon vivant and by British critics as a witty and entertaining enthusiast.

"A new travel book by Laurence Phillips is always a treat. A visit to cities like Paris and Lille without his appropriate guide is almost unthinkable."

- TheFoodyTraveller.com

"No one writes with so much brimming-over pleasure as Laurence Phillips"       - Kent Messenger

His affection for all things French has fuelled countless BBC radio broadcasts and his is a familiar voice on travel and arts programmes, from Sandi Toksvig's Excess Baggage to Five Live's Up All Night. He had been guest presenter of Radio Four's Kaleidoscope and The Off-Season in a career that has seen him working as a Radio Chef and scripting documentaries on the Château of Versailles.

... NEW FOR 2016: Shakespeare Anniversary Tour of The Shakespeare Revue - "Songs and sketches written by some of the wittiest people of the 20th century"...

Three-times winner of the prestigious Guide Book of the Year award from the British Guild of Travel Writers for his widely acclaimed Guides to France, he combines wanderlust with a love for theatre and work as a critic, playwright and songwriter, and wrote several songs for the Royal Shakespeare Company's smash hit Shakespeare Revue, a show still performed on four continents in 2012!

Schoolchildren and teachers around the country quote his "funny, perceptive, touching and incisive" verses on modern childhood and children love his off-beat and anarchic humour about school life.  In Poetry is Boring, now in paperback, many kids' favourites are collected together in print for the first time.

Hailed by the European press as"an entertaining travel companion" with a flair for "fair play and professionalism", Laurence Phillips is the author of many books about France. Lille, the Bradt Guide, regularly updated,  was chosen by the Sunday Times as the "Best Guidebook" to the city, declared "perfect" by the Glasgow Herald and the Observer found it "entertaining , informal and engaging".  The first Lazy France guide to Marseillan and Languedoc was welcomes by the French press as "an odyssey along the Mediterranean coast to discover a region and its most charming villages.”

A former Sunday paper travel editor, he writes regularly for publications, from the Sunday Times to in-flight magazines. His tales of life amongst the ex-pat Brits in France were serialised in French Magazine and his travels and observations inspired the 2009 collection of short stories Garson Lazarre's Paris Confidential. Readers of The Canada Post  followed his "ever-varied, sometimes surreal and always unexpected" column, The Travel Desk & Grill.

"You can tell that Laurence Phillips was drawn to the joys of un petit verre from a young age and has taken every opportunity to celebrate the delights since"
- Times Educational Supplement

In France, he has been honoured  as a Commander of the Order of St Nectaire cheese in the Auvergne and dubbed a Squire of the Confrérie des Sacres de la Champagne (although for the latter citation and flourish of a sabre he was inscribed as Madame Laurence Phillips, which quite possibly makes him a  Dame).

The more enjoyable perks of being a high profile Francophile have included being co-opted as the token Shakespeare-loving Brit onto France's heritage committee to decide the future of the Field of Agincourt upon St Crispin's Day.

His words have travelled more widely than the writer, his songs being performed and books read across four continents, nonetheless the author the Observer calls "engaging", the Independent regards as "essential", the Sunday Times declares "entertaining" and the  European press describe as "fun to read - a cut above" continues to tell tales and share tips from his beloved France.

Keep clicking through the site to discover more, and be prepared to scroll...
email:        lolly@laurencephillips.com

Read The Times verdict on Laurence's travels with a donkey HERE 

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Marseillan & a Lot of Languedoc