This is an open-ended blog ranging from news about my latest gigs and publications
to ruminations about politics, world affairs, culture and whatever piques my interest—or ire.
Contact: tomsancton@yahoo.com

Friday, June 23, 2017

Starred Review on Booklist!


The beat goes on...

THE BETTENCOURT AFFAIR just received this nice review on Booklist. I love the last line about the French wine cellars!



BOOKLIST
Issue: July 1, 2017
Advanced Review 

The Bettencourt Affair: The World's Richest Woman and the Scandal That Rocked Paris.
Sancton, Tom (Author)
Publication date: August 8, 2017. 416 p. Dutton, hardcover, $28. (9781101984475). 338.7.


Veteran journalist Sancton chronicles the thorny saga of L’Oréal heiress Liliane Bettencourt, her mind-boggling fortune (think stock dividends averaging more than $1 million a day), and a proportionately epic family embroilment. A daughter lacking affection from a father she adored, Liliane matured into a lonely, bored wife and mother despite endless riches and responsibilities at L’Oréal. Enter Banier, an exuberant, nonconforming artist, who offers vivacity and intrigue in spades. Eventually, Liliane will bestow gifts in excess of $1 billion on Banier while the relationship with her only child, Françoise, hardens like the obdurate heart both accuse the other of possessing. Convinced he’s conning Liliane out of her own inheritance, Françoise sues Banier, and high-court drama ensues (not to mention Nazi collaboration, political high jinks involving then-president Nicolas Sarkozy, suicide, and Swiss bank accounts). Although this tale seems destined for HBO or Hollywood, to bill this a mere “family drama” belies the staggering depth with which Sancton portrays his subjects, whose motivations, desires, and downfalls are “so difficult to judge according to a moral code based on right and wrong, black and white, good and evil.” A natural for book clubs, which will drain a French cellar’s worth of wine while appreciating Sancton’s meticulous research and discussing this unbelievable cast of characters.
                                                                                                                  — Katharine Uhrich 

Wednesday, June 14, 2017

TOMMY SANCTON'S EUROPEAN PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE 2017








June 21: Le Gramophone, 9 Grande Rue, 78160 Marly-le-Roi. With the Tommy Sancton Quartet. 8 p.m. - 11 p.m.


July 15: Le Gramophone, 9 Grande Rue, 78160 Marly-le-Roi. With the Tommy Sancton Quartet. 8 p.m. - 11 p.m. Special tribute to George Lewis.

September 3: Rendez-Vous de l'Erdre Festival, Nantes. With Claus Walkstein All Stars featuring Trevor Richards. 2:30 p.m. - 7 p.m.

October 12: Nieder-Olm / Mainz, Germany: BARRELHOUSE JAZZ GALA, Eckeshalle. With Barrelhouse Jazz Band, featuring guests Rick Trolsen, Kevin Lewis, and Brenda Boykin. 8 p.m. - 11 p.m.

October 13: Bensheim / Bergstrasse: BARRELHOUSE JAZZ GALA, Parktheater. With Barrelhouse Jazz Band, featuring guests Rick Trolsen, Kevin Lewis, and Brenda Boykin. 8 p.m. - 11 p.m.

October 14: Frankfurt: BARRELHOUSE JAZZ PARTY in the old Frankfurt Opera House. With Barrelhouse Jazz Band, featuring guests Rick Trolsen, Kevin Lewis, and Brenda Boykin. 8 p.m. - 11 p.m.

October 15: Lauda/Tauber: BARRELHOUSE JAZZ GALA, Schulzentrum. With Barrelhouse Jazz Band, featuring guests Rick Trolsen, Kevin Lewis, and Brenda Boykin. 6 p.m. - 9 p.m.




Starred Review in Library Journal!


Following up on Kirkus Reviews and Town & Country, here's a nice pre-publication review of my new book in the Library Journal: 


Judgment Day: François-Marie Banier at Bordeaux courthouse
“There is no comparable work on the Bettencourt scandal, only interviews and articles, making this highly recommended and pleasurable read a mix of luring tabloid fare and professionally researched courtroom and political drama.

*Sancton, Tom. The Bettencourt Affair: 
The World’s Richest Woman and the Scandal That Rocked Paris. 
Dutton. 
Aug. 2017. 416p. maps. notes. 
ISBN 9781101984475. 
$28
ebk. ISBN 9781101984482. BIOG

Expanding upon a 2010 Vanity Fair article introducing the Bettencourt scandal to an American audience, journalist and author Sancton (Song For My Fathers) accords France’s epic family drama the book-length exposé it thoroughly deserves. As “The French Company of Inoffensive Hair Dyes,” Eugène Schueller founded what would become French beauty giant L’Oreal in 1909. A century later his daughter Liliane Bettencourt was one of the world’s wealthiest. Her friendship with eccentric younger artist François-Marie Banier, whom she showered with expensive gifts, led her daughter Françoise to open a lawsuit alleging elder abuse. What started as a family affair quickly turned into an “affair of state” that reached then President Nicolas Sarkozy with allegations of campaign finance fraud regarding donations received from the Bettencourts. With impeccable research, Sancton takes readers through Bettencourt family history, from L’Oreal’s humble beginnings and continuing to document political upheaval in France during the last century. The years of legal proceedings are presented with their subsequent unexpected impact on the French presidency. 
VERDICT There is no comparable work on the Bettencourt scandal, only interviews and articles, making this highly recommended and pleasurable read a mix of luring tabloid fare and professionally researched courtroom and political drama.—Jessica Bushore, Xenia, OH

Tuesday, June 13, 2017

TOWN & COUNTRY TOUTS BETTENCOURT AFFAIR




Happy to report that Town & Country included my new book, The Bettencourt Affair, on its hot summer reading list. Here's their blurb:



Former Time Paris bureau chief Tom Sancton follows what happened when the world’s richest woman, cosmetics heiress Liliane Bettencourt, became the center of a scandal that captivated Europe. This true story of the elderly billionaire, the artist to whom she gave a fortune, and the family that claims it’s all been a big con, is proof that truth is stranger—or at least makes better poolside reading. (Out August 8.)

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