(1895-1970)

Born in a poor family in the Provencal village of Manosque, which he rarely left and mentioned in several of his works. When he was sixteen, he left left school, worked as a clerk in a bank and later was drafted into the First World War. In the twenties he was writing tirelessly, until his first novel Colline (Hill) was published in 1929. The book, as well as the following ones, was a great success, so he Giono is then only writing. His work is full of French rural life in Provence. He was a pacifist pursuing life in a strong connection with nature. He died in 1970 of heart failure.