A former French teacher and author who is credited with putting fun into French lessons has passed away aged 85.
Tributes have been paid to Sylvia Honnor, lead author of the Tricolore text book series, which has been used by millions of schoolchildren across Britain and around the world for nearly four decades.
Friend and Tricolore co-author Mike Spencer said Tricolore was one of the first language text books to have pictures on every page, and that characters including Detective Louis Laloupe and ginger cat Mangetout were still favourites in new editions currently in print.
He said: “Sylvia was a very lively and fun person to be with. You could definitely say she pioneered a new style of language learning. It was Sylvia who introduced the fun element into language learning, yet the books still retained a strong focus on grammar.”
Prior to Tricolore, and Ms Honnor’s other early work on French text books such as En Avant and À Votre Avis, language-learning books tended to be mostly text-based - yet Tricolore “set the bench mark” for text books in MFL learning, Mr Spencer said.
He added: “It was a bestseller. Like Sylvia, the course changed with the times, embracing the best of new ideas, whilst retaining a sound, structured approach. Although “retiring” in 2002, she remained involved in the latest edition, completed in 2016.
“The course has since become part of folklore as adults reflect on learning French at school. Even the comedian Jack Whitehall mentioned it in one of his sketches.”
First published in 1980, the Tricolore books rapidly became a success, with the stage 1 student’s book reprinting sixteen times in the first edition.
Four new editions were subsequently published by different publishers each with a slightly different title: Encore Tricolore, Encore Tricolore nouvelle édition, Tricolore Total, Tricolore 5è édition.
Ms Honnor, who lived in Huddersfield for most of her life, was widowed in 2015 and leaves a daughter, Bethany, who is a French specialist and headteacher at a school near Welling.
