I suddenly understood, in a joyful stupor, that the empty feeling in my heart, the mournful quality of my days, had but one cause: Andrée’s absence. Life without her would be death.” Then came my exotic period. I used to buy local and peasant materials all over the world – Guatemala, China, Africa, Dalmatia. I love materials for their own sake and I love the feel of them. I’ll show you some of them if you’re interested. It was going to be rounded to a 3, but I do like intelligent people and - Deidre Bair, I see what you did there. I see how, by the end of the book I have decided to finally read Murphy that has been languishing for years on my bookshelf and also some of SDB. Always putting the subjects first. It would appear a biographer is the closest thing to a selfless martyr in the literary world. I often come in first,’ I said, modest. I stared at Andrée, with her dark hair falling straight down around her face, and an ink spot on her chin. It’s not every day that you meet a little girl who’s been burned alive.

The Norwegian youngster will be among a top-class field all looking for a big performance in Paris with only a handful of tournaments left ahead of the 2023 ATP Finals. Wimbledon finalist Jannik Sinner, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Casper Ruud and former champions Daniil Medvedev and Karen Khachanov are all among the seeds. But there's been a major early casualty with Carlos Alcaraz crashing out in the Round of 32 to Roman Safiullin in two sets – that really opens up the bottom half of the draw.And so we began. I thought I would ease into my questioning by asking about her earliest childhood memories, but she went first because she wanted to thank me. “Women come from all over the world to write about me, but all they want to write about is The Second Sex.” As a person, Simone was warm and happy, it was instantly clear she was someone who loved life and was enormously interested in other people. This wasn’t at all a pretext to talk about herself. She was genuinely interested in you and this was very stimulating and creative. She really was the most open, adorable, radiant person and to listen to her, to be with her, was a source of inspiration.” The story of how the celebrated feminist thinker, then in her 50s, met and became attached to a young philosophy undergraduate from Rennes 33 years her junior is in itself worthy of a novel. Le Bon was 17 and still at high school when she wrote to De Beauvoir, expressing her admiration and asking if they could meet. Later, after she moved to Paris to study, De Beauvoir invited her to her home, a two-floor artists’ studio in an art deco building in Rue Victor Schoelcher, in Paris’s 14th arrondissement.

Sometimes the right book at the right time just falls into your lap - such is the case with this one. Originally, I was interested in reading Bair's biography of Simone de Beauvoir when I saw that she had recently published this book - after looking through the description, it sounded like something I might enjoy, so I decided to give it a try. It’s to make use of that kind of money that I buy things wherever I go all over the world. I bought an enormous Persian lamb coat when I was in Russia and had it remodelled by a good furrier in Paris. Look at the jet and gold buttons I found for it! Sylvie is bored and intellectually lonely, so meeting this clever, irreverent girl changes her life. Sylvie tells us: “Nothing so interesting had ever happened to me. It suddenly seemed as if nothing had ever happened to me at all.” Le Bon de Beauvoir, however, disagrees. “It’s absurd to speak about a lesbian relationship [in the novel] when desire and the body are not involved. It was love. We can say that Simone loved Zaza but it is what we call a flamme, an ardour, the sort of sentiment in childhood that is so terribly important and marks the entry into adulthood,” she says. “Simone’s love for Zaza was nothing to do with sex. Nothing at all. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t intense.” In France, some have seen Les ins éparables as an account of a nascent lesbian affair and proof of De Beauvoir’s bisexuality, which she had always denied. French Vanity Fair described De Beauvoir and Zaza’s relationship as “ambiguous” while the newspaper Lib ération pulled no punches, suggesting it was De Beauvoir’s “first lesbian love story” under the headline “Simone de Beauvoir’s Second Sexuality”.I told her how we had agreed that he would not read it before it was published, and I even told her how he had said he would neither help nor hinder me, which his family and friends interpreted as his agreement to cooperate fully. I told her that, having worked in such extraordinary circumstances, I didn’t see how I could work any other way. I hoped that she would be generous and gracious enough to give me whatever help I asked for, but that she would also allow me the independence to construct a full and objective account of her life and work. Paris is a bustling city that is full of life and flavor. As the capital city of France, the city is home to numerous government buildings, but it is known for its quaint cobblestone paved streets and rich historical landmarks. Landmark of Paris - Eiffel Tower the best (or worse) thing about my writing is that I never tell readers what to think but expect them to form their own opinions. And the individual writing that draws this divided response most of all is the chapter on The Second Sex… Although philosophers and scholars of French literature have recognised Beauvoir’s intellectual importance and independence for decades, representations of her life have often focused disproportionately on her early adulthood, when she formed her legendary romantic “pact” with Sartre. One day in 1929, near the Carrousel du Louvre, they decided theirs would be an open relationship, forsaking no others: they were “essential” to one another, they said, but would keep “contingent” lovers on the side. In 1929, this was a curious arrangement – and it has continued to intrigue readers. I ask if Le Bon de Beauvoir is tempted to write her own version of their relationship. “Perhaps I will write about her one day – I have always kept notebooks so maybe I’ll do it in a different way. Because you have asked, I will think about it.” Does she have a young protege, a “Sylvie” in her own life?

Now that I’m getting older I have to watch what I eat. It’s all very well for a young girl to be a bit plump but it doesn’t do for ageing women. I am super proud of the effort that went into the week's preparation. Our ability to defend our line for 30-plus phases at the end, that's huge. What an atmosphere, what a game, what a tournament to be part of and I'm just really happy to have another week." Yes,’ I said. Andrée’s confidence and rapid, precise speech unnerved me. She looked me over warily. how she had colluded with Sartre in the seduction of one of her pupils, Bianca Bienenfeld Lamblin—was much easier to understand…

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In all of this intrigue, Bair retained a reporter’s savvy, as well as an academic’s rigour in getting near the truth. As a younger woman, all she had ever wanted was to be a journalist. By her mid-20s, trying to cope with deadlines and two small children, she determined her second vocation. She originally thought of calling this book The Accidental Biographer. Full of encounters, reflections, tribulations, and revelations—an enthralling account of a biographer’s lot, by one of the art’s most distinguished practitioners.”

Choosing herself … Simone de Beauvoir in 1945. Photograph: Albert Harlingue/Roger Viollet/Getty Images

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When I was a little girl I was very badly dressed. My parents were very correct and dressed plentifully, but for convention and without taste of their own. At about twelve or fourteen I was terrible – yellow and covered with acne. I talked so much that my wineglass was left mostly untouched, but it was getting late, so I started to gather my things. All this went through my mind in a matter of seconds as I dropped my head into my hands and said, “Oh dear. I don’t know if I’m cut out for this biography business.” His demeanor changed immediately, as did his tone of voice. “Well, then,” he replied, “why don’t we talk about it?”