SOURCE: "A Little Truck Stop in the South of France," in The New York Times Book Review, June 9, 1991, p. 9.

Prial is a journalist and wine columnist for The New York Times. In the review that follows, he praises Toujours Provence as an episodic collection of finely crafted essays.

The Economist, which is never shy about these things, has nominated Peter Mayle for the Légion d'Honneur, for his efforts to repopulate rural France. Mr. Mayle is the author of last year's widely acclaimed memoir, A Year in Provence, and its sequel, just out, Toujours Provence.

Mr. Mayle may be made a legionnaire or he may not; it's not going to affect his budding but so far eminently successful literary career.

Peter Mayle is a London advertising man who packed it in one day and bolted to the south of France—not to the chic Côte d'Azur, mind...