Anyone who is fascinated by the Second World War in France will be
drawn to this novel. The heroes are officers in the French and
British Armies: Edmond de Valliet, a talented amateur pianist and
artist: Robert Cummings a businessman, and a Territorial Gordon
Highlander. He marries the pianist Anne Favoret, who voices
France's denial of Nazi ambitions in Europe in the 1930s. Edmond
and Robert retreat with the Fifty-First Highland Division to St
Valry where they are surrounded by Rommel's tanks in June 1940. The
author draws a stark contrast between personal loyalty and
political expediency which contributes to the tragic surrender of
some of Britain's finest troops. The novel unfolds against a
backdrop of a hundred and fifty years of social unrest in France,
and the division of church and state. The occupier and the
collaborator, priest and aristocrat, receive little sympathy, but
the manipulative tactics of the Resistance and the British Secret
Services also come under scrutiny. In a war setting it confronts
more 'modern' issues: homophobia, both societal and as a tool for
blackmail, and the tussle between a woman's professional and
private life. Anne finds fulfilment playing the piano as part of a
classical music team for ENSA. The prologue alludes to a mystery
which holds the reader until the last page. What happened to Anne's
adopted sister, Marie, for whom Anne felt jealousy, guilt and
protectiveness? When war breaks out, Marie is left alone in
Normandy, torn between the persuasive voice of a former admirer,
and her autocratic brother-in-law, Charles de Valliet. Now an old
woman, Anne has discovered the truth, She tells her She tells her
story.
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