Philippe Delerm

Philippe Delerm (born November 27, 1950 in Auvers-sur-Oise) is a French writer, whose collection of short stories La Première gorgée de bière et autres plaisirs minuscules has sold more than one million copies in France.

After a happy childhood with his teacher parents, Philippe Delerm pursued literary studies at Nanterre before becoming a teacher himself. In 1975, he married and moved to Beaumont-le-Roger in Eure and taught French Literature at the Marie Curie Collège (Secondary School) in Bernay. The first manuscripts which Delerm sent in from 1976 were refused by publishers.

In 1983, 'La Cinquième saison' aroused interest in the author, however his first major success came in 1997 with the release of La Première gorgée de bière et autres plaisirs minuscules. A collection of 35 short stories each of one or two pages in length, La Première gorgée de bière et autres plaisirs minuscules describes the joys that can be taken in the "insignificant things" that make up life. It was translated into English as The Small Pleasures of Life (also known as We Could Almost Eat Outside: An appreciation of life's small pleasures) by Sarah Hamp.

Delerm ended his teaching career in 2007 in order to concentrate on his writing on a full-time basis.