The List of My Desires (15 page)

Nearly two already, we must sign off, Jo, we’re going to fill in our lottery tickets and then go back to reopen the salon. Thousands and thousands of kisses. The twins who love you.

*
Union Jack pronounced with a French accent

From:  [email protected]

To:  [email protected]

Bonjour beautiful maman. Juste quelques mots to say that Nadine is expecting a bébé only she hasn’t dared to tell you yet. We are très très happy. Come bientôt she will need you. Chaud kisses. Fergus.

From:  faouz_belle@faouz_belle.be

To:  [email protected]

Hello Madame Guerbette.

My name is Faouzia, I live in Knokke-le-Zoute where I met your husband. He was always talking about you and your haberdashery shop and your website; he sometimes cried and he paid me to comfort him. I was only doing my job and I’m sure you won’t think too badly of me. Before he left he gave me a Patek watch and I only recently found out what it’s really worth so I thought it ought to go back to you. Please tell me where I can send it. I am so sorry about what happened to you. Faouzia.

From:  [email protected]

To:  [email protected]

I am looking for some seagull-grey stranded embroidery thread, do you have any? And do you know whether there are any crochet workshops in the Bénedoit area? I’d be glad to find out. Thank you for your help.

My thanks to the amazing Karina Hocine.

To Emmanuelle Allibert, the most delightful of press attachées.

To Claire Silve and her invigorating demands.

To Grâce, Sibylle and Raphaële, who were Jocelyne’s first three friends.

To all the bloggers and readers who have been encouraging me since I wrote
L’Écrivain de la Famille
, and whose enthusiasm and friendship prompted the joy with which I wrote this one.

To all the bookshops who backed my first novel.

To Valérie Brotons-Bedouk, who introduced me to
The Marriage of Figaro
.

And finally to Dana, who is the ink behind it all.

Have you ever noticed that when you choose something, you often ask yourself if it wouldn’t have been better to choose something else? We quickly grow tired of the things we possess. We make the longevity of things – the fact that they last – the source of our unhappiness. Oh, if only I had a new telephone! If only my wife were blonde! If only I could own that red car! I would be so much happier if . . .

And so, with
The List of my Desires
, there came the idea of a life that could be rewritten, reinvented; a life in which one could rub out the grey and replace it with green, or blue. A life in which one could appreciate what one already possessed – and savour it.

That is how the idea for this book was born. I was going to give a character, someone deep in middle age, the chance to change their life.

And, like a magic wand, there appeared the idea of an impressive win on the lottery (I could equally have made a genie appear from a lamp, but that idea had already been used and was rather well done!).

And so, since this was about the list of my desires, there also came this idea – to be a woman for the duration of the book. I wanted to write this story through the words of a woman, the way she saw things, her kindness, her wisdom (even if I know full well that women aren’t always wise!).

And that is how I became Jocelyne, the owner of a haberdashery in a little town in the north of France; a woman who had a life like everyone else, with its highs and lows, and who suddenly had the possibility to erase everything she didn’t like about her life.

But of course it is just when we are on the point of losing something that we suddenly understand its true value . . .

1.   What would you have done in Jocelyne’s shoes? If you had cashed the cheque, what would you have spent the money on?

2.   
I’d like to have the chance to decide what my life will be like. I think that’s the best present anyone can get.

Why is Jocelyne’s life so different from the future she imagined when she was seventeen?

3.   
Women are the fingers and the hand is their passion.

Why does Jocelyne’s blog appeal to so many women?

4.   Why is Jocelyne unconvinced that money can make her happy? Were you willing her to cash the cheque as you read or did you empathise with her hesitations?

5.   
You’re a wonderful husband, Jo, I think; a big brother, a father, you’re all the men a woman can need.

And maybe even an enemy too.

How would you describe Jocelyne’s relationship with her husband, Jo?

6.   Why is Jo unfulfilled by his new life as a millionaire?

7.   Should Jocelyne have stayed with Jo when his behaviour changed after the death of Nadège? Can you understand why she stayed?

8.   Jocelyne makes four lists. One is a list of things she needs, the second is a wish list, the third is a list of crazy notions and then she makes her final list. How do these lists change as the book progresses?

9.   
Grief refashions you in a strange form.

How does Jo’s betrayal change Jocelyne?

10. Does
The List of my Desires
have a happy ending? Is Jocelyne’s new life better than the life she had before?

11. Did reading
The List of my Desires
change your views on whether money or material objects can make you happy?

12. Jocelyne is an everywoman but her creator, Grégoire Delacourt, is a man. Did knowing that change the way you read
The List of my Desires
? Does it matter?

• The largest prize ever won in Europe was €180 million (£161 million), won by a Scottish EuroMillions ticket holder on 12th July 2011.

• The first lotteries are thought to have taken place during the Chinese Han Dynasty, between 205 and 177 BC, and were used to help finance The Great Wall of China.

• The Dutch
Staatsloterij
is the oldest running national lottery.

• Over 20 million viewers tuned in to watch the first UK National Lottery show on BBC 1.

• The first French lottery, the
Loterie Royale
, was held in 1539.

• France is Europe’s luckiest country as far as EuroMillions jackpot winners are concerned. The nation has had more top prize winners than any other participating country.

• The odds of winning any prize in the EuroMillions are 1 in 13. The chances of winning the jackpot are 1 in 116,531,800 and the chances of winning the UK national lottery jackpot are 1 in 13,983,816.

• In the time of the Roman Empire, lotteries were a popular amusement at dinner parties.

• When the UK National Lottery first began in 1994 there were five machines from which the balls were drawn, named Arthur, Galahad, Guinevere, Lancelot and Merlin.

• The luckiest EuroMillions number is 50; it has been drawn 39 times since the game launched.

• The longest lottery celebration ever was by a pub syndicate in London and lasted two weeks.

Grégoire Delacourt was born in Valenciennes in 1960. His first novel,
L’Écrivain de la Famille
, was published in 2011 and won five literary prizes including the Prix Marcel Pagnol and the Prix Rive Gauche.
The List of my Desires
has been a runaway Number One bestseller in France, with rights sold in twenty-seven countries. He lives in Paris where he runs an advertising agency with his wife.

For exclusive short stories, poems, extracts, essays, articles, interviews, trailers, competitions and much more visit the Weidenfeld & Nicolson blog and sign up for the newsletter at:

www.wnblog.co.uk

Follow us on
and