The other four receive papers and go off in pairs, but Franklin must stay, where the farmer’s daughter, Fran çoise nurses him. Preparations are made to smuggle them back to England via Vichy-controlled Marseille and thence into Spain, but Franklin’s arm is infected and getting worse. They make their way to an isolated farmhouse, where a French farmer and his family take them in, housing them in their mill. His crew of four sergeants survive uninjured, but Franklin’s arm is badly hurt. John Franklin is an RAF pilot of a Wellington bomber which once over the mountains he has to bring down in an emergency landing in German-occupied France. The glacial valleys were alternately shadowy and white as starch in the blank glare of the full moon and then in the distances, in all directions, as far as it was possible to see, the high now peaks were fluid and glistening as crests of misty water. Sometimes the Alps lying below in the moonlight had the appearance of crisp folds of crumpled cloth. The first lines create an evocative picture: Re-reading it now was akin to returning to it afresh because I couldn’t remember any of the detail, just the general setting. The book was a re-read for me: my mum had urged me to read it when I was a teenager as it was one of her favourite novels.
The title comes from the first line of Agincourt, a poem by Michael Drayton (1563–1631).
This was Bates’s first financially successful novel, published towards the end of WWII.
When I looked at my shelves, I didn’t have much choice from this year – Colette’s Gigi, which as a short novella I’ll try and squeeze in, and my choice below were the only ones immediately to hand (although I think I have a copy of Bellow’s The Dangling Man somewhere)…įair Stood the Wind for France by H.E. His last works included the novel The Triple Echo (1971) and a collection of short stories, The Song of the Wren (1972).1944 is the latest year selected by Simon and Karen in their biannual reading years club.
The Darling Buds of May, the first of the popular Larkin family novels, was followed by A Breath of French Air (1959), When the Green Woods Laugh (1960), Oh, To Be in England! (1963) and A Little of What You Fancy (1970). Other well known novels include Purple Plain (1947), Jacaranda Tree (1949), Scarlet Sword (1950), and Love for Lydia (1952). His most famous work of fiction is the bestselling Fair Stood the Wind for France (1944).
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