Writers from Saint-\u00c9tienne

Charles Exbrayat (5 May 1906 – 8 March 1989) was a French fiction writer. He published over 100 novels and short stories, most of them humorous thrillers. They were very popular and a considerable number were turned into films.
While living in Nice with his parents, he was studying to becoming a medical doctor, but then found his true calling as a writer.
His debut novel was Aller sans Retour (single fare, no return), written while in Geneva, before going to Paris. He was one of the most famous French authors of the illustrious "le Masque" collection. He wrote a number of novels set in Scotland (Imogene series) and in Italy. His other interests included gourmet food and fine wines.

Dominique Ponchardier (March 3, 1917, Saint-Étienne – April 17, 1986, Nice) was a French author and screenwriter who had been a member of the French Resistance during World War II, and later held positions as an intelligence officer, diplomat, colonial administrator and company president. He was a long-standing follower of Charles de Gaulle, at different times working for him in underground, intelligence, political, civil and diplomatic capacities.

Émile Raymond Georges Marius Boudarel (21 December 1926 – 26 December 2003) was a French academic and militant communist who was accused of torturing French prisoners for the Viet Minh during the First Indochina War.