A graduate in political science and in Russian from the Sorbonne, Frédéric Lenormand travelled widely. His travels awoke in him a desire to write. He wrote his first story after a trip to Venice, the Songe d’Ursule, inspired by Quattrocento paintings. In Spain, he wrote les Insulaires, his first published novel. In New-York, he wrote part of his second novel, Les fous de Guernesey, published by Robert Laffont. As a job, the young man took on other literary work including translation, reading manuscripts and children’s stories. The grant from the Jean-Luc Lagardère Foundation enabled him to devote himself fully to his novel, Le Voyage en Egypte. In 1798, Napoleon left France to conquer Egypt. He had the extraordinary idea of taking with him a group of scientists and artists entrusted with taking an inventory of the country’s fauna, flora and monuments. There are very few remaining accounts of these “well-dressed experts” and the three years they spent in Egypt. Frédéric therefore spent many long hours in the library every day in order to glean information before heading off in the footsteps of the expedition to the Nile. All these ingredients made the Voyage en Egypte, a novel packed with “adventure and contemplation, combined with mythology and history”, in the tradition of Alexandre Dumas, Jules Verne or Jonathan Swift.

Achievements since winning the grant

In 1995, Frédéric Lenormand’s novel, which was awarded the Jean-Luc Lagardère Foundation grant, was published with the title L’Odyssée d’Abounaparti (formerly Voyage en Egypte) by Robert Laffont (then by Press Pocket). The novel was subsequently serialised by the radio station France-Culture.
In 1998, Frédéric Lenormand’s work Les Princesses vagabondes published by Lattès was awarded the François-Mauriac prize by the Académie française and Chasse à l’homme à Versailles, a play, was performed at the Avignon Festival and then at the Théâtre Grévin in Paris (1999) with the title Mademoiselle se marie.
In 2002, his work L’Orphelin de la Bastille, a historical novel for 10-12 year olds, was published by éditions Milan and La Pension Belhomme, a study of a mental asylum transformed into a luxurious prison during the Terror, was published by éditions Fayard.
In 2004, Le Palais des courtisanes and Petits meurtres entre moines, was published by Fayard.
In 2005, Madame Ti mène l’enquête and Mort d’un cuisinier chinois, the fifth and sixth books in the Nouvelles enquêtes du juge Ti series, were published by Fayard.
In 2006, Frédéric Lenormand published L'art délicat du deuil and Mort d'un maître de Go, the seventh and eighth books in the Nouvelles enquêtes du juge Ti series. In the same year, Les savants de la Révolution, the fifth book in the L’Orphelin de la Bastille series was published by Milan.