She hosts “L’heure des livres” on CNews, which is celebrating its 600th issue with Frédéric Beigbeder. Meet a journalist who is always up to date.
It’s a little bit of serenity in a hot and often anxiety-provoking situation. With “L’heure des livres”, the only literary program on a continuous news channel, Anne Fulda imposes her trademark, made of attention and gentleness towards the authors she receives. But also open-minded. Moreover, during its premiere, on March 15, 2021, it was Maxime Le Forestier that the senior reporter from “Figaro” invited to talk about her book “Brassens et moi”. “It was a way of saying that I was not going to only talk about “chic” or Germanopratin works, those that can be scary. This is also why, at home, we see Guillaume Musso and Tatiana de Rosnay as well as François Sureau or Andreï Makine. Without forgetting essayists, philosophers, and even, recently, a young historian like Hélène Delalex (“Marie-Antoinette. Lightness and constancy”), who has succeeded in renewing the genre. »
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The challenge she tries to meet each time: making people want to immerse themselves in the work of an author… in the space of six minutes. A short format, recorded in live conditions. In other words, an exercise in which writers are not necessarily comfortable, whether they are beginners or experienced. Not everyone is a “word magician”, like Sylvain Tesson. “What is sometimes annoying,” continues Anne Fulda, “is to receive authors of a very good book who do not defend it well… and authors of lesser quality works who, on the other hand, are very good on a plateau. It’s a bit unfair. That said, she smiles, Patrick Modiano is not a great orator, any more than Françoise Sagan was! »
Defending books also means defending the civilization of the written word, which is a bit of our French specificity.
Anne Fulda
Don’t count on her to complain about the schedules of “L’heure des livres”, 3:15 p.m., with rebroadcast at 11:45 p.m., Monday to Friday. Gone are the days of “Apostrophes” and “Bouillon de culture”. In the France of yesterday, where there were only three public channels, she sat alone, as a child, in front of the screen, fascinated by the quality of the debates and the diversity of the guests of Master Bernard Pivot. She also takes up, as a tribute, her famous questionnaire in the 600th, facing Frédéric Beigbeder. A program broadcast in the usual format on CNews, but in a special twenty-six minute edition on myCanal. A good customer and always cheerful, Beigbeder had the elegance to hit the mark with his “Lovers’ dictionary of today’s French writers”.
“Frédéric is generous in the way he talks about authors and can recognize the talent of others without being partisan. I would have liked to invite his friend Michel Houellebecq at the same time, but the latter declined the invitation because, he made me understand, he says too many stupid things in interviews…” In this anniversary issue, when Beigbeder is worried about the invasion of screens which are killing the desire to read, she can only be sensitive to this. “Defending books,” she notes, “is not only pleading the cause of an author or the profession of publisher, but also defending the civilization of writing, which is a bit of our French specificity. It’s not nothing! Besides, I am delighted, through this program, to reach very different people. Recently, at the café, a cook came up to me and said: “You know, I love your show! She makes me want to read…”
If, among the young authors she invited, Anne Fulda is delighted to have highlighted Nathan Devers, Violaine Huisman and Abel Quentin very early on, with her biting satire of wokism (“Le clair d’Étampes”), she regrets not having had the opportunity to receive her friend Jean d’Ormesson, except through the book dedicated to him by her daughter, Héloïse. Fortunately, when you love words, the future always remains full of promise. And talents to discover
