Background
Boudard was born in Paris, an illegitimate child.
Boudard was born in Paris, an illegitimate child.
Boudard had a late career. As a teenager he was living in a country occupied by the German Army. His early adult life was spent in casual work, periods in jail and in a sanatorium recovering from tuberculosis.
He experimented with writing, but it was not until he was 33 that he decided to be a full-time writer
He credits the writer Albert Paraz with inspiring this move. His novels are characterised by the colloquial terms and slang that Boudard used to describe life in the 1940s.
His 1963 novel The Cherry and his 1972 story The Hospital are examples, as is his 1992 novel The amazing Mr Joseph which tells the story of a French spy who becomes a millionaire dealing on the black market during World World War II (based on the real career of Joseph Joanovici). Many of Boudard novels were adapted for French films and television
Boudard died in Nice on January 14, 2000.