Dutourd, Jean (b. 1920). French novelist and journalist who became famous with Au bon beurre (1952), a humorous and ironically deflating account of life under the German Occupation. His prolific production includes Un ami qui vous veut du bien (1981), replying to the many anonymous letters which his work provokes; Mémoires de Mary Watson (1980) imagines the life of the wife of Sherlock Holmes's assistant. He was elected to the Académie Française in 1978.
[Elizabeth Fallaize]




