British academic Michael Edwards admitted to Academie Francaise

Sacre Bleu! A Briton has been formally admitted into France's top body charged with preserving the purity of the Gallic tongue.

Sir Michael Edwards on Thursday delivered his maiden address to the Academie Francaise, a body of 40 members known as the Immortals.

"By opening the doors of your illustrious establishment, you are welcoming in its heart someone who is worse than a foreigner: an Englishman," said the 74-year-old literature professor from Barnes in southwest London.

"The British would also like to have an institution that defends the English language, especially from Americanisms," he said.

"It's an earthquake, a revolution, a Briton at the Academie," joked French writer Frederic Vitoux as he welcomed Edwards.

In a more serious vein, Vitoux spoke of "the coexistence within you of English and French, Shakespeare on the one hand and Racine on the other".

Edwards was voted into the academy on his third try in February, beating Jean-Noel Jeanneney, a former minister and president of Radio France.