Love and war in the Pyrenees - Rosemary Bailey

A vivid blend of history and travel and a sweeping story of collaboration and resistance, fear and heroism, pacifism and sacrifice all set against the backdrop of the Pyrenees.

Over the fifteen years Rosemary has been living in the region, the more she realised she didn't know about the war; about the French during the Occupation, the real role of the Resistance, the level of collaboration, the concentration camps in the Pyrenees and the treatment of Jews and other refugees. It is still very much a veiled history and most of the archives remain firmly closed.

LOVE AND WAR IN THE PYRENEES is a portrait of human tragedy, heroism and cruelty that will create a picture of the period from a contemporary angle, the history linked to sights that can still be visited, and brought to life by letters, interviews and encounters with people today, including the historians currently trying to investigate what really happened.

Rosemary Bailey studied English and Philosophy at Bristol University and worked as a journalist and travel writer, livng for several years in New York before basing herself in France.
In 1997 Rosemary and her husband bought Corbiac, a ruined Romanesque monastery whch they restored - an experience recounted in Life in a Postcard.
This same monastery features in LOVE AND WAR IN THE PYRENEES as aplace of refuge and escape during the Second World War.
www.rosemarybailey.com

Fascinating... courage, cruelty, heroism and the truth about both resistance and collaboration are revealed in a work that brilliantly reconstructs a past that is still contested.
WATERSTONES BOOKS QUARTERLY

Bailey renders history personal and so brings it to life.
SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

Combining memoir, fact and storytelling, Bailey does an impressive job.
INDEPENDENT

Part travel book, part history, part persnoal memoir, this is a gripping read.
NORTHERN ECHO