AustLit

Janette Turner Hospital comments: 'L'Envolée ... is exactly the same as 'Flight.' The story was commissioned by a small French publishing house for a numbered edition for a series of art collectors' books [Le miroir étoilé ]. The only mandate was that the story was to involve a photograph, because the series involves a major French photographer [David Mohror]. I wrote the story in English; it was then translated by someone who was appointed by the publishing house (and therein lies an interesting tale too, because the translator, Mimi Perrin, was once a famous French jazz singer who made records with some early black American jazz greats such as Duke Ellington and Count Basie; she was part of a jazz group called Les Double Six and I have some remastered CDs of her work. She's now in her 80s.)

So the story was published in French ... before it was ever published in English. There are two French editions of L'Envolée (or perhaps two versions is more accurate) There's the small beautiful soft-covered commercial edition; and there is a very limited numbered boxed series - only 25 of them - each of which contains, within the large box (approx 13" X 10" x 1 1/2" thick), one original matted pen-and-ink drawing by artist Catherine Lopes-Curval; one original matted photograph by distinguished French photographer Mohror, and recessed into a box within the box, a numbered hardcover edition of L'Envolée. I own no. 4 of the series of 25. Each one has a different original drawing; different photograph.' (Email correspondence with the author June 2004)