Fair Stood the Wind for France

Found in my local neighbourhood library with a blurb on the back saying that it was “.....perhaps the finest novel of the war...” A big call. Released in 1944, so I imagine this would have been a popular novel of its times considering that the war was not over. It seems to have kept it popularity enough to have a 4-hour TV series made in 1980. I have no recall of that on the ABC here in Australia but have had a look at the YouTube. I got about 20 minutes in and gave up. To be truthful it is not my kind of thing, and I am not sure that I have been particularly entranced by the book itself.

A basic plot of a Wellington bomber crash landing in occupied France with the lead character John Franklin being badly injured. Along with the rest of the crew they are taken in by a French farming family and at great danger to themselves the family assist the pilots. Franklin falls for the farmers' daughter as she does for him, and we get a mix of romance and derring-do escape adventure. It all felt a touch contrived to me and the French daughter being constantly called ‘the girl' throughout did not sit well with me.

Be that as it may I have to take into consideration that it was aimed at a British wartime audience and I think my mum, a child of the war would have enjoyed this. I suppose for me, it has not stood the test of time, not even as a period piece.

It is an easy read at only 254 pages and I have finished it in 3 days so it did hold my attention. I thought that the writing at times was less ambitious than it may have been.

Ian's has enjoyed this a bit more than I have, and I recommend his review for an alternate view.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4923923935