About this event
HOMELandS (Hub On Migration, Exile, Languages and Spaces) and the School of Humanities, University of Westminster, warmly invite you to a Book Launch Duet at 5pm, Thursday 10 March 2022 in Fyvie Hall, University of Westminster, 309 Regent Street, London W1B 2HW.
French London: A blended ethnography of a migrant city – Saskia Huc-Hepher, (Manchester University Press, 2021).
Through a reworking of Bourdieusian thought, the book provides a window onto the everyday lived experience of a diverse set of French migrants who have chosen to make London home. From schooling and healthcare to eating and drinking, their evolving behaviours, attitudes, identities and belongings are rigorously scrutinised in both physical and digital spaces, as are the implicit reasons underpinning their mobility and settlement. A timely epilogue offers rare insights into the affective dimensions of “Brexit” and its “unsettling” impact.
Fishes with Funny French Names: The French Restaurant in London from the Nineteenth to the Twenty-First Century – Debra Kelly, (Liverpool University Press, 2022).
British references to France and the French are littered with clichéd references to food, but the place of the French restaurant in London’s food culture is more nuanced. This is the story of what happens when an essentially Parisian institution establishes itself in its neighbour’s capital city and of the people who produce, purvey, purchase and consume French food culture in London over a period of some 150 years. An afterword considers the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the restaurant trade in London and how French restaurants responded.
In addition to the authors, we are delighted to welcome Dr Charlotte Faucher, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at the Université Paris 3 Sorbonne Nouvelle, and Dr Ruth Cruickshank, Reader in French and Comparative Literature and Culture at Royal Holloway, University of London, to share their respective readings of French London and Fishes with Funny French Names.
Do join us for drinks and nibbles at the informal celebration of these two books. This may appear to be a work-related meeting, but it is in fact a party.
Important information - Covid Response
The University of Westminster has introduced a range of measures to ensure your safety and wellbeing whilst attending events on campus. This currently includes the requirement for face-coverings to be worn when indoors (unless you have an exemption), directional markings, hand-sanitisation points, and safety screens.
