During the time we lived, until recently, in the foothills of the Pyrenees, tales of the Maquis, and the passeurs who risked their lives helping people flee from occupied France to neutral Spain formed part of the fabric of our lives. I'd already heard Edward Stourton's radio programmes on this subject: his subject then was his own journey on the so-called Chemin de la Liberté (http://chemindelaliberte.fr/), and I heard him speak recently at Richmond's Book and Walking Festival (http://www.booksandboots.org/).

His book doesn't disappoint. He manages the wealth of material he's discovered about French, Belgians, British, Americans all involved in the complicated and dangerous process of getting Jews, crashed airmen, escaped prisoners, and above all young Frenchmen escaping the dreaded enforced STO enforced labour programme of the Vichy Government in WWII. He describes the extreme difficulties of crossing the stark and inhospitable higher reaches of the Pyrenees, and brings to life many of the stories of passeurs and escapees. There are so many threads to bring together, so many aspects to this story, but Stourton makes an appealing narrative of the whole. This book is immensely readable, endlessly fascinating, and brings a difficult period of French history to light in a most approachable manner. ( )