Writing about lived experience is nothing new, and yet there has been a recent surge of books that blend aspects of the memoir with elements borrowed from fiction. Examples of such literature, coined ‘autofiction’ by the French writer Serge Dubrovsky, have proved to be highly readable, genre-bending accounts of the author’s life’. Autofiction can also be used to describe autobiographical fiction, a fictionalised narrative that draws on the author’s life and experience, and fictionalised autobiography, which is modelled more closely on real life with some compressed or fictionalised events or characters.

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If you’re heading to the cinema this weekend, I can highly recommend recently released film Colette starring Keira Knightley and Dominic West as French author Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette and her literary ‘middle-man’ and would-be-author husband Willy. Part of Paris’ wilder circles, Colette and Willy led anything but a conservative life, sharing a mistress, amongst other things. Penniless and desperate, Willy needed a blockbuster to finance his drinking and betting and convinced Colette to ghost-write a book, to be published under his name. The book Claudine à l’École, a raunchy, semi-autobiographical coming-of-age novel went on to become a huge best-seller and was followed by three equally successful books in the same series. After fighting for the rights to her books following their separation, Colette became one of France’s most celebrated female authors. Excellent entertainment.

Don’t forget yourself this time of year and be sure to buy books for YOU too. I’ve gathered a little pile that I’ll bring on my wintery holiday. What are you going to read?

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I’m sure I’m not the only one to have noticed the many closed-down shops around. Let’s make sure that doesn’t happen to your local bookstore and buy your Christmas gifts from them rather than Amazon. I know it’s tempting to hit that order button, but can you imagine anything worse than a great big gaping hole where your cozy bookseller once was?

For bookish gift ideas see our Christmas post.

Happy Christmas!