Product Description

Four young British soldiers find themselves trapped behind enemy lines at the height of the fighting on the Western front in August 1914; unable to get back to their units, they shelter in the tiny French village of Villeret. Living in daily fear of capture and execution, they are fed, clothed and protected by the villagers including the local matriarch, Madame Dessenne, the baker and his wife. The self-styled leader of the band of fugitives, Private Robert Digby, falls in love with the 20-year-old-daughter of one of his protectors and in November 1915, with war waging a few miles away, she gives birth to a baby girl. The child is just six months old when someone betrays the men to the Germans. They are captured, tried as spies and summarily condemned to death. Using the testimonies of the daughter, the villagers, detailed town hall records and most movingly - the soldiers' last letters - Ben MacIntyre reconstructs an extraordinarily story of love, duplicity and shame - ultimately seeking to discover through decades of village rumour the answer to the question, "Who betrayed Private Digby and his men?".

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #57729 in Books
• Published on: 2001-11-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 320 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
In A Foreign Field Ben MacIntyre has found another story from history's margins In two previous books, Forgotten Fatherland and The Napoleon of Crime, he focused on characters from the footnotes of history, creating compelling narratives from the stories of Nietzsche's sister and of a Victorian master criminal, brought it centre stage and constructed a very powerful drama of love, war and death around it. Robert Digby was a well-educated, middle-class private in the British Expeditionary Force at the beginning of World War I. In the very first month of the war, as the British, French and German armies surged back and forth across tracts of northern France, he became isolated behind enemy lines. When the fluid front lines of the war's first phase rapidly hardened into the murderous stalemate of the trenches, Digby and other British soldiers were permanently trapped in German-occupied territory. Seven, including Digby, took refuge in the small village of Villeret and were given shelter and assistance by the villagers. Under the noses of the German occupiers, they lived in Villeret for 18 months, masquerading as villagers. Relationships between the French peasants and the British soldiers grew strong. Digby fell in love with Claire Dessenne, the 19-year-old daughter of one of his protectors. In November 1915 Claire gave birth to Digby's daughter. Six months later someone in the village betrayed the men to the Germans. Digby and three others were captured, tried as spies and executed by firing squad. Digby's daughter, now in her 80s, still lives in northern France. Using her memories and those of other villagers, archive material and a handful of surviving letters by Digby (including one written to Claire only hours before his execution), Macintyre has produced a real-life story of the First World War as poignant and moving as Sebastian Faulks's novel Birdsong. --Nick Rennison

Review
Ben Macintyre is a journalist of penetrating insight and originality, with two other excellent works of non-fiction to his name: Forgotten Fatherland and The Napoleon of Crime. In 1999, when working in Paris as correspondent for The Times, he was contacted by the schoolmaster of a small village called Le Catelet in Northern France. The local people were holding a little ceremony, the schoolmaster explained, the unveiling of a plaque to honour four British soldiers executed by a German firing squad in 1916. It was to be a modest affair, he went on, but it would mean a lot to the villagers if a representative of the newspaper could attend. Macintyre fumbled for polite excuses. At that stage, although inevitably aware of its still obvious scar on French soil, Macintyre knew the Great War only dimly: from the perennial paper poppies of Armistice Day, from its songs and memorials. To him the Unknown Soldier was exactly that: unknown. He saw no reason to single out the commemoration of a mere four from the 720,000 British troops slain. But the schoolmaster was insistent. 'You will find it interesting,' he said. Reluctantly, Macintyre agreed to go. What follows, the account of what Macintyre then uncovered, is not simply interesting but a story as poignant as any to issue from those tortured four years of European history. Including flight, rescue, love, loyalty and then ultimately a devastating betrayal, Macintyre could be writing the best sort of fiction. Yet this is not a novel but the truth. It happened, its legacy lives on and with that legacy the sense that, somehow, that soldier is no longer unknown. If you are going to read one book about the First World War, make it this one. (Kirkus UK)

STUART WAVELL, Sunday Times
‘ Stirring, ambitious and profound, storytelling at its very best... this ranks as one of the books of the year’

Customer Reviews

A gripping 'whodunnit?' laced with wit
I must admit that I much prefer first world war 'fiction' (as in 'Birdsong' or the 'Regeneration Trilogy') to factual events and when I bought this book I made the mistake in thinking that's what I was getting.However,I was very pleasantly surprised.
The story of the 'four Englishmen of Villeret' and their untimely betrayal(by whom?) makes gripping reading.I found myself concerned for the soldiers and villagers and the circumstances in which they found themselves and although I was aware of the fate that befell them, the ending was not ruined. This due to Ben MacIntyre's painstaking research and interviews with the descendents of all involved in 1916. He puts forward theories of the locals as well as his own, but ultimately the reader is left to make their own assumptions as to 'whodunnit?'

Real life love story
This is not only a fascinating account of a real life love story with a tragic ending, but also an interesting insight into the lives of the inhabitants of Villeret and surrounding villages in northern France during the first world war. Well worth reading.

Haunting story of occupied France during WW1
A superbly well-researched book tracing the remarkable and moving story of a group of British soldiers caught in occupied France in the First World War.
This is a story of love, bravery, betrayal and tragedy elegantly told by a seasoned Times journalist. Of course, the tale itself is compelling, but the real value of this extraordinary book is the detailed picture it provides of how war changes people, destroys entire cultures, depriving communities of their past, their present and their futures.
A Foreign Field's focus on one village, one community gives the reader an opporunity to chart the wider human destructiveness of war.
MacIntyre's brings all the characters to life and tells the story with the skill of an accomplished novelist.