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Rosie's War
Rosemary Say, Noel Holland
Extent: 272 pages
Size: 231x153mm
Publication Date: 07/04/2011
About the Book
Rosie, a young Englishwoman from a comfortable middle-class background, left her London home in 1939 to work as an au pair in Avignon in the South of France. Even the outbreak of war later that year did little to disturb her happy life there, until 1940 when Hitler launched an all-out assault on Western Europe. Trying to escape back to Britain, Rosie was only able to flee as far as Paris, where she was eventually rounded up as an 'enemy alien' and sent to a German-run prison camp in Eastern France. Desperate to escape, she eventually did so with an equally industrious friend, Frida. After many months on the run in France, the young women finally reached the unoccupied city of Marseille. From there, they continued to flee through France, Spain and Portugal, at last arriving in Ireland where they were able to catch a plane back to Britain. Moving, enthralling, and inspirational, Rosie's War is a book for all to enjoy.
Publication Date: 18/05/2011
Price: £4.99
ISBN: 9781843176473
Categories: Science - History - Philosophy
About the Book
Reviews
- 'Extraordinary - a must-read', Stylist
- 'A truly powerful book', Woman's Own
- 'Exciting, vividly told... The pages of this droll, fascinating posthumous memoir are fond witness to Rosemary Say's brio and quirky sense of fun', John Lahr, The New Yorker
- 'This story of Rosie's horrifying imprisonment and daring escape is both frank and satisfyingly unsentimental', Readers' Digest
- 'Terrific, a most remarkable and wonderfully atypical wartime story', Barry Norman
- 'Her memoirs are equally understated, told in almost matter-of-fact prose which somehow makes her story all the more compelling', Daily Express
- 'I would recommend this book to anyone wishing for a slice of nostalgia laced with danger as it takes you back to a more innocent time yet with the most sinister of events unfolding... Such is its wide appeal I can even see this novel being made into a film', The Irish World
- 'A gripping story which brings home the chaotic bewilderment of the early days of Occupied France. Rosie proved herself to be both courageous and adaptable and her baptism of fire from ignorant young girl into seasoned escapee is compelling.', Elizabeth Buchan