As secretary general, he was responsible for announcing the name of the winner of the prestigious prize at the Drouot restaurant each autumn. Now, Didier Decoin, 74, will replace Bernard Pivot as president of the Goncourt academy, appointed to this function by his peers on Monday January 20.
Unbeatable in the news or Asia, Didier Decoin is a jack-of-all-trades who knows this assembly of writers well for having been laureate of the Goncourt in 1977 for "John the Hell", then member of this literary cenacle since 1995.
Son of filmmaker Henri Decoin, born in Boulogne-Billancourt on March 13, 1945, Didier Decoin was first a journalist at France Soir before collaborating with several newspapers such as Le Figaro or Les Nouvelles littéraires. He participated in the creation of the magazine VSD and worked on Europe 1. Passionate about navigation, he was a columnist for a long time in the magazine Neptune Motor. He is in particular the author of a "Dictionary of love of various events".
In addition to journalism, he began a career as a novelist. He was 20 years old when he published his first book, "The Love Trial". This will be followed by around twenty titles, including "John the Hell" for which, in 1977, he received the Goncourt Prize.
Lover of Asia, he published in 2017 "The office of gardens and ponds", retracing the journey of a young and modest Japanese woman of the 11th century who will experience life at the imperial court. And it is for this novel that he stood out, in December 2019,: receiving the "Bad Sex in Fiction Award". A British jury has ruled that a passage from this book deserves to be elevated to the rank of the worst description of lovemaking in world literature.
"Mackerel In White Wine"
The Goncourt academy made him dream as a child. "My parents were very good friends with Gérard Bauer, who sat with the Goncourt family and entering the Goncourt academy was one of the goals of my life," he said on Monday.
Learning in 1995 that he had been chosen to join the academy, he remembers wanting to "celebrate it with a feast". "But I was filming in the Cotentin ... I went alone to the village restaurant and the most delicious on the menu were mackerel with canned white wine ... I I made two cans of canned mackerel ... and I was so happy that I found it delicious, "he laughs.
Twice he chaired the Société des Gens de Lettres (SGDL). He was also one of the founders of SCAM (Civil Society of Multimedia Authors). Also a screenwriter for cinema, he works for directors like Marcel Carné, Robert Enrico, Henri Verneuil, and Maroun Bagdadi with whom he will receive, for the film "Hors-la-vie", the special jury prize at the Cannes festival.
But it is on television that Didier Decoin devotes most of his activities. Author of numerous original scripts and adaptations, and after having directed the fiction of France 2 for three and a half years, in 1999 he received the Sept d'Or for the best screenplay for "Le Comte de Monte-Cristo" (mini- television series broadcast in 1998). He chaired the International Festival of Audiovisual Programs (FIPA), which has now become Fipadoc.
Didier Decoin lives partly in Normandy on the Cotentin peninsula. He is married and has three children. Her son Julien Decoin is also a writer. Its new function will prevent him from enjoying his hobbies as much as before, that is to say "watching movies on TV and on Netflix", but who cares. He recognizes that his real passion is "the pleasure of reading". "I can not live without it". Today, he says, "I am overjoyed. Everest for me is to preside over this little company".
With AFP
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