Dom Pérignon (monk) at the Abbey of Hautvillers, Dom Groussard, who in 1821 gave an account of Dom Pérignon "inventing" Champagne among other exaggerated tales about the Abbey in order to garner historical importance and prestige for the church. Groussard’s myth achieved more than prestige for the church, it helped commercialize champagne at the turn of the twentieth century. The Syndicat du commerce used the myth to promote champagne and the Champagne region, producing a pamphlet called "Le Vin de Champagne" in 1896 that celebrated Perignon as the inventor of champagne by following "ancient traditions." The myth served to protect champagne made in
The World Is What It Is in 1996. The biography has been extensively reviewed: the reviewers include Paul Theroux, who wrote an earlier book about Naipaul. The biography was selected by the editors of the "New York Times Book Review" as one of the "Times"' "10 Best Books of 2008". It won the 2008 National Book Critics Circle Award in Biography, and the British literary award the Hawthornden Prize. The World Is What It Is The World Is What It Is: The Authorized Biography of V. S. Naipaul is a biography of the Nobel Prize-winning author V. S. Naipaul by Patrick French. It was published in