Christian Thorel was the first among France’s literary circles to warn about French billionaire Vincent Bolloré‘s ideological influence after his 2023 takeover of France’s largest publishing group Hachette.
Thorel is a co-shareholder and editorial adviser at the Toulouse bookshop Ombres blanches (“White Shadows”), where he worked for over 40 years, helping it to become France’s second-largest independent bookshop with a collection of 150,000 titles, more than 300 literary events a year and 150 new titles added daily.
In an interview with Le Monde, the influential bookseller discusses Bolloré’s latest show of force.
In the wake of CEO Olivier Nora’s dismissal from the publishing house Grasset, its authors and publishers signed an open letter protesting the decision. As a bookseller, how do you feel about this ousting?
I see it as an unworthy decision. I don’t recall any news as brutal in the publishing world since [businessman] Jean-Luc Lagardère acquired Hachette in 1980. I was just starting out in the profession and it was a massive shock. All afternoon on April 13, I was repeating this information in disbelief. That evening, as on every evening, the bookshop was hosting an author. It was the political scientist Bernard Pudal, co-author of the book Du FN au RN. Les raisons d’un succès (“From the Front National to Rassemblement National. The Reasons for a Success”, untranslated). What a coincidence… I made a point of being present in the auditorium to announce this somber and worrying news, whose ideological overtones were so close to the evening’s theme, to our regular customers.
You have 82.43% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.
