Philippe Daudy (17 June 1925 – 12 March 1994) was a member of the French Resistance, a journalist, a novelist, a publisher and a businessman.
Unlike the French commentariat, however, the response from British critics to the book was lukewarm, with several reviews noting Daudy's fondness for cliché and his indifference to the experiences of ordinary people.
[4] One lacerating rebuttal came from The Economist, which criticised the author's supposedly affectionate insights as amounting to little more than a catalogue of perceived British inadequacies, noting acerbically that this may be why "the book has been immensely popular in France.
"[6] Daudy began his own publishing house[1] and co-founded the leading French literary prize now known as the Prix Décembre.
Daudy married first Janine Sommer (marriage dissolved), by whom he had two daughters, Martine and Florence, who both live and work in Paris.