"Heartwrenching drama"
In 1914, a small cadre of English military was stranded
behind enemy lines. The French peasants of Villeret tried
to hide the soldiers from the occupying German forces.
However, the German army began using the homes of the
villagers to quarter their troops and living off the local
economy straining the food supply. The villagers refused
to turn their English "guests" over to the Germans and
collectively protected them over the next two years. One
of the English, Private Robert Digby even fell in love with
a local girl. However, by 1916 as sustenance became a
problem and the withdrawal of the occupying army seemed
like it would never happen, someone broke ranks and turned
in Robert and his peers. The Germans executed the English
soldiers. In high school and college World War I is a desert dry
footnote starting with Ferdinand, consisting of Wilson,
neutrality, and the Lusitania, and ending with the League
of Nations. On the other hand, Ben Macintyre takes a
relatively minuscule incident from that War and breaths
life into it and for that matter any war. THE ENGLISHMAN'S
DAUGHTER focus on that French incident between 1914-1916,
but furbishes the audience with the underlying
generalization that in war in spite of technology people
count. It is the true human drama that makes history hum
and enables the audience to understand the past, connects
it to the present, and projects it into the future. Mr.
Macintyre has written a winner that should be required
reading at the military academies and included in any world
history class so that we can learn in a lively exciting
environment. Harriet Klausner
Reviewed by PNR Group Member
Posted March 6, 2002
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