Like a cat, Guillaume Meurice landed on his feet. Originally, the comedian from France Inter was to publish his book “The End of History in 200 Expressions”, co-written with Nathalie Gendrot, by Le Robert editions in September. This publisher is a subsidiary of Editis and therefore of Vivendi, which belongs to Vincent Bolloré, the all-powerful boss of Canal+. However, Editis had noted the risk of legal proceedings for defamation or insult, in particular in a humorous passage evoking Vincent Bolloré.
The group wanted to modify several passages. A way of saying “you’re pushing the envelope a little too far, Meurice”? The author had then firmly refused. Here he is now ready to release “The End of History: 201 expressions to impress the gallery”, scheduled for March 1, at Flammarion, which belongs to the Madrigall group (Gallimard, POL, Minuit, Denoël, J’ai lu , etc.).
“It’s a return home for Guillaume Meurice, who has already been published by Flammarion”, explained to AFP the publisher of this book, who is called … Guillaume Robert. “As I adore books of French expressions, it was blessed bread: a book that everyone was talking about, for which all of Paris called the authors. Once the contract was terminated with Le Robert, they saw a lot of publishers. I wanted to tell them about the book, before discussing the case, ”he added.
The entire layout has been reviewed, and an expression has been added in order to be able to give a different title. The book, which will be released with a banner indicating “the book you almost never read”, will contain a “preface” by Guillaume Meurice where he will detail the controversy and the change of publisher.