Born in Condom, he studied Spanish, English, and French literature at the University of Lille, earning degrees in 1961 and 1964. The following year, he studied at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales du Nord. He then worked for an ad agency as a creative writer. He began submitting works to publishers in 1958, although it was not until 1971 that his first novel, Lady Black, was published. This was followed in 1973 by Les Loukoums, which tells the story of a malady afflicting a group of New Yorkers. A string of novels followed, often – as in Le Petit Galopin de nos corps, 1977 and Portrait de Julien devant la fenêtre, 1979 – about love affairs between two male characters. He also wrote works of drama, such as Il pleut : si on tuait papa-maman, La Guerre des piscines, and Les Dernières clientes