Philippe Claudel is one of France's best known novelists who also defines himself as a teacher.

"Words have the same importance to me as imparting and instructing — it would feel wrong to me somehow, if I just wrote and did nothing else."

The self-made "man of words, thought and action" as he's often described in the French media, teaches anthropology and literature at his old university in Nancy, as well as in schools for physically disabled children.