On a chilly Saturday evening at the Alliance Française Delhi (AFD), 20 children walked with Detective John Chatterton, the zesty black detective cat (inset), trawling a shady part of a big city for clues leading to the missing young girl—slyly dressed up like Little Red Riding Hood. While storyteller Paro Anand, known for her theatrical storytelling style lead the children to the clues, French writer-illustrator Yvan Pommaux, clad in a red jacket, and the brains behind the suited black cat, stood in a corner. “My English is not that good,” smiled Pommaux (in the picture below), in India, for the launch of his book John Chatterton translated into English and Hindi by Rajkamal Publishers. The launch is a part of a five day literary festival “Lire en Fête” which includes an exhibition of illustration workshops and book discussions, and the first French book fair in India.

Pommaux, 61, remarked, “I have been translated in Japanese, Spanish, Korean but never in English. The book, first published in France in 1993 has finally been translated in English, that too by an Indian publisher.”

However, Pommaux, who blithely combines clipped dialogues with comic simplicity, has no training as an illustrator and worked his way up by designing pastry and working in hairdressers shops. He drew constantly from an early age. Later, he also juggled illustrating text books published by École des Loisirs. “I had to do odd jobs that permitted me to draw. École des Loisirs spotted me and gave me the job of illustrating text books to keep me afloat,” shared Pommaux.

Meanwhile, Francophiles can get a copy of Voltaire or Rousseau for Rs 50 and French pocket dictionaries at 20 per cent discount. You can also find a French translation of Salman Rushdie’s

Midnight’ Children and Oscar Wilde’s The Canterville Ghost and some interesting French comic books. Also, have a look at the exhibition of 12 authors and illustrators including former French minister Azouz Begag, Frédéric Clément and Michel Honaker at FIRC, at Aurangzeb Road.