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But I Really Wanted to be an Anthropologist...

By Margaux Motin

Translated by Edward Gauvin

Hardback, 176 pp, $24.95

"I would have studied the symbolism of the high-heeled shoe amongst the pygmies, observed the frequency of female depilation in the Amazon, established a typology of the baby wench in Inuit societies, I would probably even have learned to make a dugout canoe with a bra strap and a flip-flop, and gotten plastered on cassava-liquor. Life would have been a crazy race, a never-ending bender, a vast field of possibilities! But I'm a big lazy-ass, I throw up when I'm drunk, and I'm afraid of wasps. Besides, all I really know is how to draw…"

Meet Margaux: thirty-something mother, geek, style-goddess and red wine drinker. We follow her life, collected from her illustrated blog, as she makes her way as a freelancer in Paris. Anyone who's ever worn inappropriate shoes to the supermarket or danced around the house in their underwear will be charmed by Motin's irreverent humour.


Margaux Motin


Margaux Motin is an illustrator and blogger living in Paris, France. She studied visual communication in Paris and began her career as an illustrator with a monthly column in the magazine Muteen. From there, she began to work for Nova, and eventually began to regularly draw for Elle France, Cosmopolitan France and Fluide Glamour magazine, as well as drawing for advertising and on her blog. Motin illustrated the covers for the French editions of Bridget Jones' Diary. She has also illustrated a graphic novel called Bad Twinz, working with fellow writer and artist Pacco. But I Really Wanted to be an Anthropologist, originally titled J’aurais adoré être Ethnologue, was her first published book, and has become a bestseller in France, selling over 80,000 copies.

Reviews

"[A] dirty-minded, potty-mouthed, thong-flaunting... Posy Simmonds."
— Glasgow Herald