Maryse Wolinski

Maryse Wolinski (3 May 1943 – 9 December 2021) was a French journalist, novelist and writer.

Born in Algiers in May 1943, she spent her childhood in Paris and South East France, and at age 20 studied journalism.

Her debut job was as a society writer in Sud-Ouest and later on Le Journal du Dimanche where she met her future husband cartoonist Georges Wolinski.

They had three children.

She also worked as a freelancer in a number of publications like F Magazine, Elle, Généraliste (a specialized medical magazine), and wrote frequently in Monde-Dimanche, a supplement to the daily newspaper Le Monde.

Wolinski wrote Une Histoire des femmes and her book La Divine Sieste de papa was adapted for television by director Alain Nahum.

She also wrote songs sung by Carlos, Bernadette Lafont and Sarah Mesguish, broadcast during a Christmas programme on France 3 in 1986.

She later on included them in a special publication that won best award for youth readers.

She subsequently published other books destined to younger audiences and continued writing song lyrics that were sung by Catherine Bériane and Canadian Diane Tell.

She wrote a number of novels, like Au Diable Vauvert, Le Maître d’amour and La femme qui aimait les hommes, a best seller.

She also published pocketbook novels Graines de Femmes, La Tragédie du Bonheur and La Chambre d’amour and a number of scenarios for television series most notably on TF1 called Protection rapprochée.

She was the widow of cartoonist Georges Wolinski who died on 7 January 2015 during the Charlie Hebdo shooting in Paris.

Her 2016 book Chérie, je vais à Charlie dealt with the terrorist attack that killed her husband Georges.

Wolinski died of cancer in Paris on 9 December 2021, at the age of 78.