There's the father's mustache, My childhood passed, It was at the time when Brussels.
.. You had to think about it.
Write a book on Jacques Brel with for each chapter the title or the verses of a song.
After publishing two bibles in 2018,
Jacques Brel Author
and
Jacques Brel Singer
, France Brel continues her work for the great history of song by releasing
Jacky
, the first volume of a biographical series entitled,
Chronicle of a Life
.
With a direct, gripping style, one might dare to say "
Brelien
", France Brel, the soul of the Jacques Brel Foundation, has produced a work rich in stories, testimonies and unpublished documents which begins one day in September 1909 when Romain Brel (the father of Jacques and the grandfather of France) signs a contract in Brussels then embarks at the port of Antwerp on a ship which will take him to Africa.
This
"Once upon a time
" à la Vasco da Gama inaugurates, in its own way, the epic of the future life of Jacky and his family, recounted with verve in this work.
Read alsoFrance Brel: “The life of Jacques Brel sheds light on his songs”
The figures of Jojo, Brassens and Barbara
France Brel, who brings the legend of the Grand Jacques to life with great resolution and force, explained how this biography, so important for understanding his work, of his father's childhood was conceived:
"This first work which rigorously follows the timeline ends in December 1946 when my 17-year-old father, whom everyone calls Jacky, is expelled from college.
One of the intentions of the book is certainly to present the many archives gathered over so many years in the family and over more than 40 years at the Foundation.
But I also wanted to introduce the reader to the Brussels of the 1920s and 1930s, without forgetting the years of such important wars when Jacky grew up between laughter and daydreams...”.
The daughter of "
Jacky
" also knows that an exceptional destiny is not written alone.
This is why she also wanted to describe the great characters who, little by little, allowed the Brussels poet to reveal himself.
And on purpose, she highlighted it in the presentation of her book: “
I also mention a series of personalities in their particular paths who, later, will become witnesses of the private or professional life of Jacques... I briefly evokes the Breton childhood of Georges Pasquier dit Jojo, his great friend, the arrival of Georges Brassens in Paris or even the itinerary of the singer Barbara whom everyone still calls Monique Serf
”.
Read also*Jacky, published by Fondation Jacques Brel, €29
France Brel came to
Figaro Live
to confide the secrets of her father's childhood to Thibaut Gauthier
