You spot the prices, we ask the questions

The cost of The Sea at home and, er, over the sea in France, has attracted the ire of PriceWatch reader Patricia Smith.

While John Banville's Man Booker prize-winning novel is still available only in hardback in Ireland, Smith has come across it selling for considerably less in paperback form in at least two French cities.

"While in Lyon last October I saw [ the book] in an English paperback version for under €10. Back in Dublin I looked for the paperback edition but was told in many shops that it wouldn't be available for several months," she writes.

She goes on to say that in January in an FNAC outlet in Cannes the paperback was on sale for €8.84. Back in Dublin days later, however, "the hardback edition is €25.50," and, according to at least one sales assistant Smith was speaking to, it "is selling so well that they still don't have the paperback".

"Can anyone explain to me why we cannot have the regular paperback available?" she writes.

PriceWatch visited the FNAC French website and found that the English-language paperback version is indeed on sale to French readers for €8.84, while the same book is selling only in hardback in Easons on Dublin's O'Connell Street for €25.30.

We contacted the book's publishers, Pan Macmillan, to find out why the paperback was available for a third of the price it is here, and when we could expect to have the cheaper paperback. They told us it is scheduled to appear in paperback in Ireland and Britain on April 21st.

Apparently "a small number" of paperbacks were printed for export only, and these have been available on the continent since autumn.

But "trade" paperback versions of The Sea are on sale in the Dublin Airport branch of Hughes and Hughes this week at a promotional price of €14.95 - the full price is €16.70. These paperbacks are larger than a traditional paperback but slightly smaller than the hardback, and are exclusive to airports.

What's More

FLOWERS ON THE DAY Last week we reviewed supermarket-bought bouquets of flowers ranging in price from €9.99 to €12.99 and in quality from great to not so great. In order to establish what effect Valentine's Day has on flower prices and variety we returned to the four outlets, Lidl, Dunnes, Tesco and Londis last Tuesday morning. Lidl had replaced our "luxury bouquet" with a special Valentine's bunch and to its credit, had not upped the price. The Dunnes outlet where the bouquet we reviewed had been purchased appeared to be no longer selling flowers - or it had sold out very early. Tesco had replaced the excellent €12.99 bouquet of roses and lilies we reviewed with a dozen red roses with a price tag of €24.99. The store was also selling a single, not-too-big-headed rose for €2.50.

The Londis store where we bought our review bouquet had the same uninspired offerings available for the same prices as before. Coincidentally, a spokeswoman for the Londis group contacted us on Valentine's Day to point out that as their stores are owned by independent retailers, the group is not able to stipulate exactly is sold in each outlet, unlike Dunnes, Tesco and Lidl. She said the stores did have some "excellent" Valentine's offers including cheap Lir chocolates and very good value sparkling wine. She also drew our attention to a fetching Valentine's Bouquet (complete with a ridiculously cute white teddy bear!) at €24.99 which was available in some of their stores.