FROM the moment her first French lesson began at school in York, Catherine Sanderson found herself falling hopelessly in love with the language and by extension, with France.

The instruction "écoutez, puis répétez!" she preferred to interpret as "listen, then dream." Even now, some 20 plus years later, she is at a loss to explain why France held such appeal.

Paris has been her home for more than a decade and she wouldn't want to live anywhere else. She is known there, and to the many thousands of people who follow her internet blog, as Petite Anglaise. What began as a bit of fun, a commentary on Paris and her life as the busy, working mother of a toddler, grew into a much more personal diary as her relationship with her partner, "Mr Frog", began to break down.

Her anonymous blog was attracting 3,000 readers a day and, before long, it cost her her job. She worked as a secretary at an English accountancy firm which was never named in her diary, but when her bosses found out about Petite Anglaise they were not at all amused.

"The partners held a meeting and decided I had to leave immediately which I thought was very extreme as French employment laws are very strict," said Catherine.

Much has happened in her life since, including winning a legal action for unfair dismissal and now her blog has become a book. Petite Anglaise has just gone on sale in bookshops here, to be found in the biography section, much to her amusement, in the company of Jordan.

There is no trace of a Yorkshire accent when we meet, though she claims it re-surfaces when she is back on home ground and that her very French daughter definitely has one. The past couple of years have been something of a roller coaster as she has gone from being an unemployed, single parent to winning the tribunal, landing a book deal and meeting the new man in her life – they are to marry in June, around the same time as her book will be published in America.

Catherine takes a deep breath and agrees that yes, there is going to be rather a lot to do this year. "I never dreamed I would have my own book or that any of this would have happened."

She moved to France after studying Modern Languages at Bath and worked first as a teaching assistant and then as a bi-lingual PA. She settled in Paris, fell in love with "Mr Frog" and they had a daughter, "Tadpole". So far so good.

"I started the blog when my daughter was one. I was working full time, rushing round, spending most evenings in and when I started it, it was a way of creating something for myself, becoming something I wanted to be and not just a mum. Making myself a bit funnier and more elegant I suppose. It became therapeutic."

She called herself Petite Anglaise, and her writing became much more frank and personal as she confided some of her problems in the blog. The more she revealed, the more reaction she received from a growing number of people who were logging on. Through it she met James, an Englishman living in Brittany and she pinned her hopes on this new relationship, which did not work out.

She says writing the blog did help her through the bad periods, though she wondered sometimes if she should be writing it at such emotional times. "But I got such a lot of reaction from people and even now I get emails from people saying they found they identified with what I said."

People were following it almost like a soap opera and she admits it was strange to hear people talking about what was happening in her personal life – "have you heard what's happened to Petite?"

Back home in Poppleton, her parents were also following the blog, skimming over most of it to get to the bits about their granddaughter, says Catherine, 35.

When her boss found out and she was sacked, she was so upset she didn't write anything for a couple off weeks and just left a message saying she was taking a break. Emails of concern came flooding in.

Catherine decided to take legal action and, at the height of the media coverage over this, in July 2006, petiteanglaise.com was receiving an average of 40,000 visits a day. Much to her surprise, she won the case and was awarded a year's salary of £30,000 plus expenses.

By that time she had received several book offers from publishers and spent the next nine months working on the story of her blog and what it led to.

Paris is, without doubt, where she feels she belongs.

There is another book to be written, fiction this time; a wedding to organise and, of course, the continuing thoughts of Petite Anglaise to be posted on her blog.

Catherine rushes off to keep another appointment and sign copies of her book. Who needs a boring job in an accountant's office?

Petite Anglaise, Michael Joseph, £12.99. To order a copy from the Yorkshire Post Bookshop call 0800 015 232. Postage and packing is £2.75.