I have a slight problem with my current book Keeping The Peace. The thing is, I've got a scene of three people - one Englishman who can't speak French, one Frenchman who can't speak English and an English girl who can speak both and who is translating the conversation. The problem is the humour in the scene is the fact she isn't translating correctly and is deliberately misleading the Englishman. I'm not sure how to get around this, so that the reader can understand both the French and English even if you don't know the language. The only thing I can think of is to keep it all in English but put the French spoken dialogue in italics. Here's an extract. Can I have your thoughts on this?


“Wait! You do speak French! Tell him he hasn’t delivered the full order. What’s on this order form isn’t what’s on that lorry.”
“Hmm. My schoolgirl French lessons might not be up to it,” Pippa said slyly. Her two years spent at an art college in Paris might have been though.
“Stop taking the piss!”
“That’s no way to speak to an owner.”
“And that’s another thing!” Jack fumed.
“Do you want my help?”
“Yes! Tell him -”
“I know, I know. Are all racing trainers like this?” she asked the man.
“Some, but this one is particularly bad.”
“What did he say?”
“He said you’re a very good trainer.”
“What’s that got to do with anything? Lose the chitchat. Ask -”
“He seems to think you have delivered too little hay but are charging him for the full price.”
“He thinks I am trying to cheat him but I keep trying to tell him I’m not! He is being completely unreasonable.”
“What?”
“He says he can understand where the confusion has arisen. It’s completely understandable.”
“I have travelled from France with another lorry which has broken down somewhere in this crazy country. Now I wish I had offered to stay behind with the broken down lorry than come up here. I could have let Francois deal with this bastard.”
“What?” Jack snapped impatiently.
“He said the other half of your order has broken down somewhere in England. He regrets you should be put in this situation.”
“Great, when am I going to get it?”
“Do you know when the other lorry will be fixed?”
“They are working on it now. It should arrive tomorrow. The sooner the better I think. For me though, I’ll make sure I don’t have to do orders for Monsieur Carmichael in future.”
“What did he say about me?”
“He said he admires you very much and it’s a pity you have met under these circumstances.”
“A pity indeed. When is my hay going to arrive?”
“Tomorrow hopefully. They’re doing their best to get the lorry going right now.”...

Please help!

Hannah