Writer quotes George Best after winning France`s top literary prize
(Artdaily.org)

The winner of France`s top literary award quoted the footballer George Best after being announced as the winner of the Prix Goncourt on Monday. Jean-Paul Dubois paraphrased one of the late hard-drinking Belfast-born star`s most famous quips after he was mobbed when the prize was announced in a Paris restaurant. `It`s a pleasure to be standing here. It`s a pleasure just to be standing up,` he said. Dubois, 69, suffers from a problem with his inner ear that sometimes leaves him dizzy. His moving and colourful epic about a prisoner looking back on his life also had the judges in a spin, pipping the heavily-tipped favourite Amelie Nothomb, one of France`s biggest bestselling authors, by six votes to four. `I am very happy and flattered. Anything can happen (in life)!` Dubois declared after his new book, `Tous les hommes n`habitent pas le monde