Foreign Field (Text Only)

Description

In the first terrifying days of World War I, four British soldiers found themselves trapped behind enemy lines on the western front. They were forced to hide in the tiny French village of Villeret, whose inhabitants made the courageous decision to shelter the fugitives until they could pass as Picard peasants. The Englishman's Daughter is the never-before-told story of these extraordinary men, their protectors, and of the haunting love affair between Private Robert Digby and Claire Dessenne, the most beautiful woman in Villeret. Their passion would result in the birth of a child known as "The Englishman's Daughter," and in an act of unspeakable betrayal, a tragic legacy that would haunt the village for generations to come. Through the testimonies of the villagers and the last letters of the soldiers, acclaimed journalist Ben Macintyre has pieced together a harrowing account of how life was lived behind enemy lines during the Great War, and offers a compelling solution to a gripping mystery that reverberates to this day. - Publisher.

First Sentence

On a balmy evening at the end of August in the year 1914, four young soldiers of the British army-two Englishmen and a pair of Irishmen-crouched in terror under a hedgerow near the Somme River in northern France, painfully adjusting to the realisation that they were profoundly and hopelessly lost, adrift in a briefly tranquil no-man's-land somewhere between their retreating comrades and the rapidly advancing German army, the largest concentration of armed men the world had ever seen.

Subjects

Other Editions

• Foreign Field (Text Only)HarperCollins Publishers Limited2012-01-01
• A foreign fieldHarperCollins2001-01-01
• The Englishman's daughterHardcoverFarrar, Straus and Giroux2002-01-01
• Englishman's DaughterFarrar, Straus & Giroux2002-01-01
• Foreign FieldHarperCollins Publishers Limited2002-01-01
• A foreign fieldHarperCollins2002-01-01