An 83-year-old French author has been accused of child sexual abuse in a book by an alleged victim that has provoked controversy over attitudes to sex with minors in France.

Vanessa Springora, 47, a publisher, recounts how she allegedly had sex in the mid-1980s, at the age of 14, with Gabriel Matzneff, an award-winning author then nearly 50.

Her book, Le Consentement, or Consent in English, to be published next week, follows a torrent of allegations of sexual violence and sexism in France, triggered by the #MeToo movement and accusations of rape and sexual assault against Harvey Weinstein, the Hollywood producer.

She does not accuse Mr Matzneff of forcing her to have sex, explaining that she was captivated by the older man’s charisma.

“How can you admit that you were abused, when you cannot deny that you consented?” she writes. “At 14, you’re not supposed to find a 50-year-old man waiting for you at the school gate, you’re not supposed to live in a hotel with him or find yourself in his bed”.

France sets no legal age of sexual consent. Last year parliament dropped a proposal to make 15 the age at which a minor could agree to have sex with an adult.