"Variously described as an architect, painter, novelist, communist and convicted fraudster, Fernand Pouillon's life was punctuated by abrupt reversals of fortune that might have sprung from the pages of Dickens or Dumas. Throughout an eventful career, he ricocheted from intoxicating success, to financial scandal, prison, exile and eventual rehabilitation. In 1985, when Pouillon was in his early 70s, he was awarded the Legion d'Honneur by President Francois Mitterrand. Yet just over 20 years earlier, Pouillon found himself in custody awaiting trial on charges of corruption."
"Staging a hunger strike, he was moved to a prison infirmary, from which he escaped by shinning down a rope smuggled in by his brother. On the run for eight months, he was dubbed France's most wanted architect, before, with exquisite sangfroid, he turned up by taxi to the Parisian courthouse on the day his trial was due to begin."
Fernand Pouillon combined roles as architect, painter, novelist, communist and prolific developer, responsible for major housing schemes in France and Algeria. His professional life alternated between celebrated achievements and legal controversy, with accusations of funding irregularities and breaches of rules separating design from construction. He staged a hunger strike, escaped from a prison infirmary via a rope smuggled by his brother, lived as a fugitive for eight months, then returned for trial and served a four-year sentence. While incarcerated he wrote Les Pierres Sauvages (The Wild Stones). He accumulated luxury possessions and later received the Legion d'Honneur in 1985, achieving rehabilitation.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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