Gilles Gauthier, born in 1944 in a village close to the town of Bordeaux, left for Algeria for the purpose of cooperation in 1966 where he taught until 1971. After fifteen years teaching Spanish and French in Algeria, Morocco and France and after having studied Arabic in Paris at the National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilisations, he joined the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in 1982. In this capacity, he assumed various responsibilities in Iraq, Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt and Lebanon before being appointed ambassador to Yemen. Gilles Gauthier introduced the Egyptian writer, Alaa El Aswany, whose entire works he translated, to France. He is now advisor to Jack Lang, the president of the Arab World Institute.

Gilles Gauthier is the author of “Entre deux rives, cinquante ans de passion pour le monde arabe, une autobiographie centrée sur le monde arabe” [Between two riverbanks: fifty years of passion for the Arab world. An autobiography centred on the Arab world], published by Lattès in May 2018 as well as of “Un si proche ennemi” [An enemy so close], a novel published by Riveneuve in May 2021.