A memory about Simone de Beauvoir

I was reminded by today's Google Doodle that this was the birthday of Simone de Beauvoir. I love existentialist writers, I am pretty much an existentialist philosophically and de Beauvoir's Deuxième Sexe was one of my mother's favourite non-fiction books for a time (it may still be now). But I have a different memory of the work of Simone de Beauvoir: for me, she was and will remain mainly the author of Le Sang des autres. I gave a course on this novel when I was teaching literature in Liverpool. It was maybe my most popular class, it was probably my best. I miss teaching literature, and today reminded me of this. So joyeux anniversaire Simone. You gave me some of my best working days.