Editing Chocolat (novel) (section)

== Background ==
Harris has stated that she planned the novel during the [[Easter holiday|Easter holidays]], while she was accompanying a school trip to France. At this time Harris was teaching French in a boys' [[grammar school]] in [[Leeds]]; had a four-year-old daughter; and gave private lessons and marked exam papers to earn extra money.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Harris |first=Joanne |date=2020-04-04 |title='I was told there was no market for foody books set in rural France': Joanne Harris on writing Chocolat |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/apr/04/i-was-told-there-was-no-market-for-foody-books-set-in-rural-france-joanne-harris-on-writing-chocolat |access-date=2025-05-06 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> 

Harris has indicated that several of the characters were influenced by individuals in her life:<ref>{{cite web |title=About the Book |url=http://www.joanne-harris.co.uk/pages/bookpages/chocolat.html |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070611113110/http://www.joanne-harris.co.uk/pages/bookpages/chocolat.html |archivedate=11 June 2007 |accessdate=9 June 2007 |work=Joanne Harris Website}}  Contains comments by the author.</ref> the young Anouk and her imaginary rabbit, Pantoufle, were both inspired by Harris' four-year-old, and Harris' strong-willed and independent great-grandmother influenced her portrayal of both Vianne and the elderly Armande.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2019-04-02 |title=Joanne Harris on why she has returned to Chocolat, 20 years on |url=https://inews.co.uk/culture/joanne-harris-strawberry-thief-chocolat-sequel-275526 |access-date=2024-06-05 |website=inews.co.uk |language=en}}</ref>

Harris had no expectations that the book would be a success, having been told that her style of writing was "neither commercial nor fashionable enough to succeed, and that there was no market for books set in rural France, filled with self-indulgent descriptions of food." She describes how she wrote ''Chocolat'' "on Sunday mornings, on the living room floor with my laptop, while my husband was at work and my mother looked after our daughter."<ref name=":0" />

Of writing the book, Harris says:<ref name=":0" /> <blockquote>It was rather a different story from the ones I had written previously. I’d never written about motherhood before, or about my own family. It felt as if I were finding my voice for the first time as an author, and it was exciting and new. My husband, Kevin, followed the tale page by page as I wrote it. I finished the first draft in less than four months, with hardly any revisions.</blockquote>