“The rioters of the Grand Quay”: Le Havre in the heart of a historical novel

Ink has been running through his veins “since he was very young”. Self Gérard Hatton, 75, publishes his first book with Editions Complicités The rioters of the Grand Quaya historical novel set Havre (Seine-Maritime)he writes for his pleasure from the desks of a school a Sanvic district, where he fell in love with reading. A passion that has never abandoned her.

Over 30 years in the retail trade

At the time, we held prizes where books were offered to us. Since I was pretty well ranked, I was prioritized to choose. It made me want to write.

Unfortunately, once the certificate of study was in hand, the Havrais did not have the opportunity to pursue major studies. “Right to work! But I continued to read, to research, to cultivate myself personally, to write. In particular on the story. And this, in particular during the more than 30 years spent working in large distribution.

However, due to “excessive shyness, lack of self-confidence”, he had never made the big step in publishing. This happens with the publication, in September 2022, of Grand Quay rioters in Éditions Complicités, a Parisian house. “I have sent to a dozen publishers but I was under no illusions. Until this positive response.

The French Revolution experienced by the people of Le Havre

The selected manuscript is a historical novel set in Le Havre and the surrounding cities (Sanvic and Bléville not yet annexed, Montivilliers, etc.), where “a fictional plot and a historical reality mix”, explains Gérard Hatton, who worked on the book for several years.

“This is the story of a group of friends who find themselves caught up in the whirlwind of the French Revolution between April 1789 and February 1790.” Because if the attack on the Bastille in Paris was organized on July 14, 1789, “the people of Le Havre revolted against the price of bread on July 15, 1789 and invested the François-Ier tower which served as a prison”. “However, the News of the attack on the Bastille only reached Le Havre on the night between 15 and 16 July, which the people of Le Havre were unaware of “, the writer points out.

Historical information, Gérard Hatton, got it from the Municipal Archives, the National Library of France, the Salacrou Library in Le Havre or even from the books of Jean Legoy and Alphonse Martin.

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