HISTORY LESSON THINLY DISGUISED
Piers Paul read is a phenomenal historian and writer whose books are difficult to get hold of. I wish his publishers would get busy re-printing his early works and flooding the bookshops with them. THE FREE FRENCHMAN, first published in 1986, is an extraordinarily detailed history of France during the Second World War told through the members of the de Roujay family and their friends who find themselves diametrically opposed in their political positions between co-operating with the German occupation and conscientious resistance. It's an ambitious book; to my taste more of a history lesson thinly disguised as a novel, but nevertheless an impressive achievement.
