"I would have loved to tell you that I am coming out of hypokhâgne and that I read all of Proust at the age of 8".
It is true that with his dandy allure, his charming smile and his talent as a storyteller, one would think François Busnel came straight from the beautiful districts of Lyon or the chic and literary 6th arrondissement of Paris.
It is very bad to know the presenter of "La Grande Librairie" who, barely two months ago, whispered in Barack Obama's ear… Soon to be 52, he loves to tell stories.
Here is his.
“If you are looking for a culture journalist, I love to read.
We are in 1996 and BFM is still only a small economic radio station.
Seated in a cafe, its founder Patrick Fillioud is challenged by a certain François Busnel whom he does not know.
Seduced by the profile of the young man of 27, he entrusted him with a daily column for the summer.
"François was already an exciting and passionate jack-of-all-trades," remembers the first boss of the man who eventually spent five years at BFM.
When he landed his job on the radio, François Busnel returned from several years abroad.
In Africa, where he has drawn for La Croix, Géo and RFI, and in Iraqi Kurdistan, where he was stuck for six months.
It was in this conflict zone that he put a cross on his vocation as a war reporter.
Too hard, not for him.
The appeal of books is stronger.
An irrepressible thirst for escape
A love that comes from afar.
“My background is Ddass, I was adopted at 3 and a half years old.
It is also the suburbs, Argenteuil, Cergy, and trains that never went to Paris.
He remembers a happy childhood, in a modest family, but also of the sporty and rebellious child that he was and his thirst for escape.
First runaway at 8 years old.
He wants to see Paris and finds himself on the banks of the Seine, facing the booksellers and their famous green boxes.
A revelation: “When I grow up, I'll buy books, that will be my job.
"François Busnel tells all this from his office in the 15th arrondissement of Paris, where piles of books are piling up everywhere.
Very early on, he escaped from the books.
“When you wait every morning for the 7.42 am train to go from Argenteuil to Pontoise and, thanks to reading, you find yourself in the middle of the ice with Jack London or in the 17th century with the Musketeers, the journey and your daily life become fantastic.
By developing my imagination, by helping me to put words on my ills, those which, as a teenager, shatter us, books saved me.
"
Bob Morane, Gotlib, Astérix and above all Corto Maltese, he also devours comics.
Around 13, it's Tolkien and his "Lord of the Rings".
“A remedy for boredom, reading gives the codes to understand life, find the right words, insists François Busnel.
She offered to the untimely lover and pitiful flirty that I was the words to seduce.
It is by discovering "The Afghan Riders" of Joseph Kessel, that he wants to become a reporter.
See the world, tell about the lives of others.
Another revelation: Jacques Chancel on the radio.
“I was coming home from college and stumbled across a show with astrophysicist Hubert Reeves.
A real click ”.
Philippe Labro plunges him into the bath of the small screen
With his baccalaureate in his pocket, he enrolled in Nanterre in philosophy.
He will not tempt journalism schools.
“I thought it wasn't for me.
I had this commuter complex ”.
François Busnel takes advantage of the rhythm of the university to travel.
First love at first sight: Algeria, in the footsteps of Le Clézio.
Thanks to a humanitarian raid, he will then visit Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso.
His second love at first sight was in America where he took advantage of a university exchange to spend six months in Maryland.
“He's a book lover.
We really need a François Busnel in the United States!
»Says of him Douglas Kennedy, one of the American writers with whom he praised very strong links./LP/Frédéric Dugit
In 2001, François Busnel left the radio for the written press.
He was noticed by Denis Jeambar, the all-powerful boss of L'Express, who gave him carte blanche for long-term papers.
The Busnel leg is emerging.
“I don't like criticism, I don't know what a good book is.
I prefer his story, that of the author ”.
In the United States, where he is very often on the move, he meets Paul Auster, Jim Harrison, Toni Morrison… Authors with whom he forges very strong links, such as with Douglas Kennedy.
“I got to know François when
The Man Who Wanted to Live His Life came out
.
He was already an excellent journalist who takes the time to get to know you, to understand you, testifies the New York writer.
He is above all a faithful friend whom I have seen three to four times a year for 25 years and with whom I love spending evenings in
dive bars,
those sinister places à la Bukowski.
He's a book lover.
We really need a François Busnel in the United States!
"
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After L'Express, Denis Jeambar entrusted him with the keys of the magazine Lire to make it a great journal of popular literature.
Banco, sales are taking off.
It is Philippe Labro who will plunge him into the bath of the small screen a few years later by offering him a literary program on Direct 8 that Vincent Bolloré has just bought.
Three years later, his mentors Labro and Chancel urged him to take the plunge in public television.
On September 4, 2008, “La Grande Librairie” landed on France 5. “As its name suggests, in this program, you can find everything,” insists its host.
Modiano, Bussi, Roth.
Let's stop despising those who read Musso and Lévy!
"
He "broke the codes" of the literary world
Second program, phone call from Jacques Chancel: “The program is very bad, but you can improve yourself.
Start by standing up straight, smile, don't look at your files ”.
Message received.
The show quickly found its audience.
For Philippe Labro, it is quite simple, “François is the custodian of the legacy of Pivot and Chancel.
He is the sole defender of books and literature.
And he sells!
"Having your author invited to
La Grande Librairie
is the Grail", confirms a press officer.
His selection?
He does it in his country house near Dreux (Eure-et-Loir).
"I read about twenty pages and I have only one criterion: pleasure".
“I don't only receive Vanessa Springora or Camille Kouchner.
We also invite authors still unknown.
»Joël Dicker, Leïla Slimani, Pierre Lemaitre made their first TV there.
As for the comparison with Bernard Pivot, he brushes it aside: "He is irreplaceable, I can't quite match him ..."
READ ALSO>
Behind the scenes of the exclusive interview with Barack Obama by François Busnel
A little phrase that its detractors delight in.
“Pivot is loved.
Busnel is not liked at all.
It increasingly demands exclusivity.
If your author goes to another TV, no
Grande Librairie,
”plague an editor.
"He may have integrity, but it's very complicated to work with him, he never answers the phone, doesn't accept any lunch," said another professional.
For Sophie de Closets, the director of Fayard who prepared with him the event interview with Barack Obama, François Busnel quite simply "broke the codes" of a literary environment where cronyism is legion.
According to her, “he put a distance and made enemies.
But I think he doesn't care!
"" He never gave in to the star system.
He protected himself ”, abounds his friend Karina Hocine, editor, at Gallimard, of the Prix Goncourt Hervé Le Tellier.
And also Delphine de Vigan, the partner for ten years of François Busnel.
Telling America
On his private life, the journalist is not very talkative.
He has a grown 21-year-old daughter and says he was hurt when newspapers came across him when he received his lover on his show.
“We had just met and his novel
Nothing is opposed to the night
was in the running for Goncourt.
I did not know then that it was the woman of my life and the president of France 5 knew about it.
"
And after ?
Is there a life after "La Grande Librairie"?
“Books taught me to live in the moment.
Carpe diem ”, responds the person concerned.
Want to take the pen?
No, he assures us.
"He has already made incredible documentaries, he will direct," assures Philippe Labro.
"François always has a thousand ideas," confirms his friend, the writer Eric Fottorino.
READ ALSO>
Bernard Pivot: "Old age provides us with time to dream"
Like that of America magazine.
At the end of 2016, Donald Trump has just been elected.
“In January, François came to my office with this 200-page quarterly project to tell about this America that we no longer understood.
His brilliant idea was to open his columns to the greatest American authors… He succeeded in convincing Toni Morrison, Jay McInerney and Colum McCann to collaborate on number 1 ”.
The reviews are rave.
This does not prevent the magazine from ceasing to appear in 2021 with the victory of Joe Biden.
One thing is certain, François Busnel has not finished telling us about the America he loves so much.
In his boxes, a documentary on Barack Obama.
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