| Fair Stood the Wind for France | |
|---|---|
1st US edition |
|
| Author(s) | H. E. Bates |
| Cover artist | Nicholas Panesis |
| Country | England |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Novel |
| Publisher | Michael Joseph (UK) Little Brown (US) |
| Publication date | 1944 |
| Media type | |
| ISBN | NA |
| OCLC Number | 220638129 |
Fair Stood the Wind for France is a novel written by English author H. E. Bates, it was first published in 1944 and was his first financial success. The title comes from the first line of Agincourt, a poem by Michael Drayton (1563–1631).[1]
Contents |
The story concerns John Franklin, the pilot of a Wellington Bomber who badly injures his arm when he brings his plane down in Occupied France at the height of the Second world War. He and his crew make their way to an isolated farmhouse and are taken in by the family of a French farmer. Plans are made to smuggle the them back to Britain via Vichy controlled Marseilles but Franklin's conditions worsens and he remains at the farm during the hot summer weeks that follow and falls in love with the farmer's daughter Françoise. Eventually they make the hazardous journey together by rowing boat and bicycle...
It was adapted into a 4-part television mini-series in 1980 for the BBC starring David Beames as Franklin and Cécile Paoli as Françoise.[2] This production is available on DVD, distributed by Acorn Media UK. In November 2009, BBC Radio 4 broadcast a two part dramatisation by Maddy Fredericks in the Classic Serial strand.[3]
'Sometimes the Alps lying below in the moonlight had the appearance of crisp folds of crumpled cloth'. (First Penguin edition, page 5)