Valérie Trierweiler's behind-the-scenes look at François Hollande's presidential campaign

It can't be easy being a first lady, trying to carve out a role for yourself and at the same time wanting to remain an independent working woman.

And one thing's for sure, Valérie Trierweiler isn't making life simple for herself.

First there was an apparent behind-the-scenes apology for that infamous Tweet she sent last week in which she lent her support to Olivier Falorni in his battle against Ségolène Royal.

Seggers was the Socialist party's "official" candidate for a parliamentary seat in Charente-Maritime which Falorni thought he deserved to be contesting and...oh you probably know the story by now but just in case you can read about it here.

All right, "apology' might be exaggerating a little, especially as Trierweiler's humble "I made a mistake" is reported as second hand information.

You know the sort of thing; an unnamed source and a friend of Trierweiler's to boot, telling the national daily Aujourd'hui en France - Le Parisien that she (Trierweiler), " Had miscalculated the effect her Tweet would have upon the president's authority, the Socialist party, her children and those of François Hollande."

Anyway that was last week's news and is behind us - for the moment.

But clearly, even when saying nothing, the ever-retiring Trierweiler, resolute in her decision to be a working first lady, is destined to make the headlines.

And this week it's the publication of her new book.

Actually that's a bit of a stretch too because all she has done is provide the words to go along with a photo reportage documenting something (or someone) close to her heart: François Hollande's presidential campaign.

Hollande has written the preface to pictures taken by photographer Stéphane Ruet but it's Trierweiler who steps in to provide a running commentary (in the first person) and quite frankly she reveals herself to be a lady of letters - the Mills and Boon variety with a healthy dose of venom thrown in.

Ruet's photographs capture Hollande in some very "normal" moments at different stages throughout the campaign - by himself or surrounded by members of his team.

But because they clearly can't speak for themselves, Trierweiler puts them into context in a manner befitting that of someone clearly at ease with the power of the pen.

"A private diary" (of sorts) is how Reuters describes it with the emphasis seeming to be on how Trierweiler feels at certain moments and her interpretation of Hollande's reaction to events such as Dominique Strauss-Kahn's arrest in New York.

Perhaps her best line though is left for the rally in Rennes; the one where Hollande, as the party's official candidate, appeared on stage for the first time with Seggers.

"There has been a lot of speculation about this over the past week and plenty of photographers have turned up," she writes.

"The question fellow journalists are asking is 'Will they kiss or shake hands'. Yes the man I love had another woman in his life before me. And it just so happens that she was also a presidential candidate," she continues.

"Je fais avec," she concludes, proving to everyone perhaps exactly the contrary.

"François Hollande président, 400 jours dans les coulisses d'une victoire" is surely a must for any coffee table.

Perhaps, given the number of photos in which Trierweiler also appears, three extra words should have been included in the title - "et Valérie Trierweiler".

Whatever - hurry out to your nearest bookstore now or order it from Amazon while stocks last!

Could Trierweiler be to literature what Carla Bruni-Sarkozy was to music and film?

Carla Bruni-Sarkozy becomes comic book heroine

France's first lady, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, is the heroine of a new comic book.

Screenshot of Bluewater publisher's Female Force - Carla Bruni-Sarkozy

Published by Bluewater productions, the 40-page book is described as "an unauthorized political biography with a difference" and is part of the publisher's "Female Force" series aimed at "female empowerment".

It was perhaps only a matter of time before Bruni-Sarkozy, the missus of "Hollywood's senior representative in France" as the online news website p2pnet rather tongue-in-cheek describes her husband, Nicolas Sarkozy, trod another path in her rich and varied life.

The former model - sorry Supermodel - turned singer, some time actress and now first lady has long been considered one of the world’s most beautiful women – the kind who would make wearing a tea cosy not only fashionable but probably also sexy.

The daughter of a wealthy Italian industrialist and composer, Alberto Bruni Tedeschi, and the Italian concert pianist, Marisa Borini, Bruni-Sarkozy was born in Turin, moved to France with her family when she was just five and was “discovered” by the world of catwalks at 19.

Over the years she has acquired the reputation as something of a “man eater”, not an image she has been eager to play down, even apparently going as far as to say once that, “I am monogamous from time to time, but I prefer polygamy and polyandry.”

In her 20s she had a much publicised on-off affair with Rolling Stone, Mick Jagger – and in her time has also dated a long and eclectic list of A-listers including US billionaire Donald Trump, British rock star Eric Clapton, Hollywood actor Kevin Costner and even former French Socialist prime minister, Laurent Fabius.

And how’s this for a one-woman double act so to speak. Seven years ago, while living with the French journalist and critic, Jean-Paul Enthoven, she met and fell in love with his philosopher son, Raphael, with whom she had a child, Aurélien, in 2001.

Phew.

No wonder the blurb for the new book describes her as being "driven by determination and by the music in her blood to become successful in many walks of life."

But a comic book? And one with only 40 pages?

"When girls read this they're going to see they can do anything, and be what they want to be," Bluewater's Darren Davis told Agence France Presse.

"It is unbiased, so we do talk about things in there... but the struggles that she had make her a stronger person."

Bruni-Sarkozy now joins the ranks of other women such as her counterpart from across the Pond Michelle Obama, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, former US vice presidential candidate Sarah Pain, Harry Potter author J K Rowling, Australian singer Olivia Newton John, and a host of others whose lives have been told in the pages of the Female Force comic book format.

Written by David McIntee and Heath Foley "Female Force, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy" is published by Bluewater productions and undoubtedly presents a role model any parent would wish for their daughter.

Sadly it has yet to find a publisher in France.

France's literary return to work

Summer is almost over here in Europe. All right so you would be hard pushed to be able to tell it from the weather, which seems certainly to have rejoiced in being almost one long wet spring shower with intermittent bursts of sunshine, at least in this part of northern France.

But the signs are aplenty that we're fast heading into autumn.

And every year a big fuss is made in France about la rentrée - the period directly following summer when the country kicks into action again after the long break.

Telly programmes resume "regular transmission" when once again the viewing public can settle back in their sitting rooms to watch a mix of home-produced series and favourite US imports

In the capital, the banks of the Seine are no longer covered in sand as they have been every summer for the past seven years, and Paris Plage is replaced by rush hour traffic and bronzed motorists fuming at the wheel.

Schools prepare to throw open their doors to a new intake and government ministers get back to the daily task of "running " the country.

But another, and peculiarly French sign that la rentrée is upon us in this country is the deluge of new releases that hits the bookshelves.

That's right, every country might have its return to normal service after the summer break, but as the French website Rue 89 points out, surely only France has what is called here "une rentrée littéraire."

It's basically the publishing equivalent of going back to school. The period from now until the end of October when publishers hope to capture readers' imagination by aiming to release as many new titles as possible before the slew of literary prizes starting in November.

This year there are 676 new titles from which to choose - admittedly down from last year's 727. In fact there has been a drop in all categories ( foreign - minus 10 per cent, French - minus 5 per cent, and first-time novelists - minus 10 per cent) for the first time in years according to Rue 89.

But the choice is still big enough to throw even the most eager bookworm into perplexed contortions.

And here's just an admittedly very limited selection of some of the titles the French newspapers are recommending.

One of the biggest hopes in terms of sales and with an initial print run of 200,000 is Belgian writer Amélie Nothomb's "Le fait du prince." It's her 17th novel and tells the story of a 40-something, taking over the identity of a wealthy stranger who drops dead outside his front door. It's described as "eccentric" and "intriguing" as the main protagonist does his best throughout the novel to maintain his "stolen" life.

Another potential best seller - which is after all what publishing houses really want - is Catherine Millet's "Jour de Souffrance" (Day of Suffering). It's her first novel in seven years, and tackles that age old literary gem "jealousy".

Yasmina Khadra's new novel "Ce que le jour doit à la nuit" (What The Day Owes The Night) is perhaps one of the most eagerly awaited new releases. Khadra would probably make the subject of a post in himself. Yes that's right, although writing under a woman's pseudonym (which literally means green jasmine in Arabic) Khadra is in fact the pen name of a former Algerian army officer Mohammed Moulessehoul, and one he adopted to avoid military censorship.

He has lived in exile in France since 2001 and his latest novel is set in colonial Algeria and follows the tale of Younes-Jonas from childhood in the 1930s to the period just after the country's independence in 1962.

The 1986 Nobel peace prize winner Elie Wiesel's new novel "Le Cas Sonderberg" focusses on the themes of Judaism, identity, Shoah, guilt and pardon, starting with a young German woman who is accused by the US justice system of having murdered her ageing uncle.

Years later a Jewish journalist reveals the truth behind the case - the uncle was a former Nazi supporter who still lamented the fall of Hitler.

Among first time novels there's Tristan Garcia's "La meilleure part des hommes" (The best of man). Set in the 1980s gay community, it centres on the relationship between a former left wing activist and his younger lover.

It's apparently full of love and hatred dealing with discrimination and emancipation set against the backdrop of Aids. And the 26-year-old Garcia is quoted himself as saying of the novel, "It's not a made up story as such but a faithful record. It's a tale that I didn't live through myself about a community hit by Aids and a portrait of the very best and worst in mankind."

Of course it won't just be books by French authors hitting the shelves. There'll also be a fair selection of foreign writers releasing their latest novels and among them are the latest from 2007 Nobel prize laureate, Doris Lessing ("Alfred and Emily") and the former Booker prize winner Salman Rushdie ("The Enchantress of Florence").

And so the list could continue. But to run through them all would probably have you reading this post until Christmas and there has to be an end.

The numbers may be down, as are the print runs, and the publishing industry as wary as the rest of France about the amount of money it has to spend - in this case on promoting books that might only have a limited appeal.

But la rentrée littéraire, that seemingly peculiarly French phenomenon is far from dead, And neither, would it appear, is the country's love of a good read.