Returning to Paris from Morocco in 1953, Benzoni started to work as a journalist, writing historical articles at the
Journal du Dimanche and
Histoire pour tous. Collaborating with artists Robert Bressy she wrote dialogue for the serial soap
Dr. Claudette and
Dr. Fu Manchu. In 1959 she participated in the popular television quiz show
Le Gros Lot. The topic was the Italian Renaissance, and the subject was
Catherina Sforza. In spite of floundering on the second-to-last question, the next day she was summoned by
Gérald Gauthier, director of the Press Agency at Opéra Mundi. Impressed by her historical knowledge, he asked her if she could write a historical novel in the same style as the
Angélique series, (by
Anne Golon), which Opéra Mundi had published with great success in 1956. Benzoni agreed, already having an idea inspired by the legend of the Golden Fleece, and began to write the adventures of a golden-haired beauty during the
Hundred Years' War.
Catherine was released in 1962 as a
cliffhanger in the daily newspaper
France-Soir as ''Il suffit d'un amour'' (One Love is Enough). Seventeen historical series (sixty-five books), a collection of eighteen short story novels, three stand alone novels, all in all eighty-six books, followed. For her researches Benzoni was often seen at the local library "Monaco" in Saint-Mandé. She travelled all over the world to visit castles, museums, monasteries, libraries and villages for her work. Sometimes a museum painting would inspire a new story. She never kept a computer; each morning at six-thirty she got up and started writing on her old electric typewriter and wrote three pages – never missing a day, even on Sundays. From time to time she appeared on television American
President Ronald Reagan and his wife Nancy sent her a letter from the
White House, after reading her first novel of the
Le Gerfaut series (The Lure of the Falcon). One of the factors in Benzoni's success as a Romancière was based on her thorough historical research. She wrote a series of books based on the histories of the castles in France,
Le Roman des Châteaux de France, with a foreword by
Stéphane Bern, journalist and moderator. Although her later works were not widely translated, in 1984, she was one of the top ten female French writers whose works were translated into English.
Catherine novels After the successful start of
Catherine in Great Britain the American market also began to publish Benzoni's series 1967 with different book covers and titles. As
Catherine and a Time for love had ended in 1968 with an epiloque, and the last two books were written years later in 1973 and 1979 due to the demand from her French readers for new Catherine adventures, the final sixth and seventh books were not commonly translated for overseas markets. Later in 1985, Benzoni confessed to having " a weakness for Catherine, because she was the first of my heroines", whereas the series
Marianne, a star for Napoleon was an order by my publisher for the occasion of the bicentenary of the
Emperor" Henri de Monfort wrote in his new books review "qui est la meilleure garantie du plaisir et de l’émotion qu’y prendra le lecteur. Ajoutez qu’il est de bonne langue et de bon style." (which is the best guarantee to keep a reader spellbound with pleasure and emotion during reading. Worth mentioning are the excellent treasury of words and of style) In 2014 the English publisher
Telos Publishing bought the rights from Benzoni to re-issue the Catherine series which included the never before translated seventh book
Catherine: La Dame de Montsalvy, titled
Catherine: The Lady of Montsalvy. Telos Publishing announced on their website that this time the Catherine novels would be full and unabridged translations.
The Aldo Morosini Adventures In the Nineties, Benzoni created a new hero, a Venetian prince, "His Highness Aldo Morosini” an expert on historic and precious stones. As Benzoni explained at the end of a later edition of the first novel in the series, the
Aldo Morosini Adventures originated in the request of a famous French actor for her to write a television series script for an adventure story set in
Venice, with him in the leading role. What started as a set of four novels, each titled after a famous precious stone, became a series of 15 books, enjoyed by both male and female readers. The adventures of the dashing Aldo Morosini were translated in
Hungary,
Portugal,
Spain,
Russia,
Slovakia, the
Czech Republic,
Greece and
Poland. Because of its success, the author started writing new Aldo adventures in between other novels. Although popular in Europe, as of 2022, no publishers have translated the books into English. The last adventure of Aldo Morosini
, Le Vol du Sancy:
Des Carats pour Ava? was published by Plon two weeks before Benzoni's death in 2016. ==Filmography==