Anna Reviews: Back Behind Enemy Lines

Back Behind Enemy Lines by Chris Bridge
Review by Anna Belfrage

Please see below for information about the FREE COPY we are gifting!

A book about a female English spy during the last months of World War II promises nail-biting tension, of gritty action and moments of despair. Back Behind Enemy Lines delivers all that – but much, much more, being an excellent description of the consequences of all that action and the price of setting duty over your heart.

In 1944, a young woman named Anna is parachuted into Normandy, where she is to present herself as Marie-Claire, a French dairy maid. With Anna comes a radio, money for the Resistance, a large silk map which she is to complete with detailed information about the Germans, and a crate of weapons.

It is a lonely life. Marie-Claire is always on her guard, her French hosts keep their distance, and her human interaction is restricted to her network of informers and the people she delivers cheese and milk to.

The story is told both in the point of view of Marie-Claire in 1944, and the reminiscent point of view of Anna, looking back at the events of those months from a distance of 60 years. It is skilfully done, allowing the present-day Anna to add depth and introspection to the sequence of the events that eventually lead to Marie-Claire’s own chrysalis – a turning point in her life from which she emerges not like a shimmering butterfly, but like a badly singed moth.

There is a moment of absolute fear when Marie-Claire is hauled off to be interrogated by the local Gestapo. The grey-haired, distinguished German knows exactly who she is – but lets her go. This, if anything, increases Marie-Claire’s paranoia, convinced as she is that the Gestapo officer is merely biding his time, waiting to pluck her like a ripe plum when he so desires.

Well-known WW2 spy Odette Sansom

And then there is Pierre, her co-agent, the first man Marie-Claire has ever fallen in love with, the first man to touch her and hold her. There is an absolutely beautiful scene just after they’ve met – but before they’ve become lovers – where Marie-Claire returns home to her little hideout, and Pierre has already left, but her unmade bed holds the indent of his body, a promise of future embraces and intimacies.

Not everything in life is black and white, and as D-Day approaches Marie-Claire finds herself in a situation where she no longer knows who to trust. Her contacts in England bombard her with instructions, Pierre has gone missing, one of her informers has been arrested by the Germans, and it’s as if Marie-Claire is walking about with a noose round her neck, expecting the Gestapo to appear at any moment and drag her off to die.

The building stress and tension is excellently described, and together with Marie-Claire, the reader is forced to leap to a number of conclusions, hoping – just like Marie-Claire – that they are wrong. Meanwhile, there are attacks to plan, railways to blow up, information to be sent back to England, and Marie-Claire submerges herself in her tasks, anything to escape facing the truth as presented by her rational mind, no matter her protesting heart. The mission cannot be put at risk, so ultimately, she has no choice – and for the rest of her life she will wonder if she made the right one.

The climactic events of the summer of 1944 leave Marie-Claire permanently scarred. She is returned to England, debriefed, offered a medal which she refuses, and then, once again Anna, she is left to her own devices – alone with the ghosts of her recent past.

Gestapo in France

Unsentimentally, Chris Bridge describes a person falling apart. Anna sees dead people everywhere, she can’t talk, she can’t sleep – but she can scream. To the modern reader, the diagnosis is self-evident: post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). To the people of Anna’s generation, no such diagnosis existed. People were told they should be happy they were still alive and encouraged to “get on with it.” Anna sees others like her everywhere. And just like them, she builds a wall around her fragile self, facing the world with a façade that ensures she will never again expose herself to the pain of true emotions. Anna goes through the motion of living – but the woman she was died in 1944, a sprig of white flowers over her bleeding heart, and there is nothing to fill the void left behind.

She marries, has children she quickly discards as being her husband’s rather than hers, and lives on the edges of the family, a silent presence that cooks and cleans and gardens but never interacts at any depth with any of them. Does Anna fail her children? Monumentally. Can she help it? Not really. Now and then, things happen that for an instant penetrate her armour – like when the family goes for a jaunt into the countryside, and the children dare Anna to milk a cow, expecting her to fail. Anna, however, has milked numerous times as Marie-Claire, and as she settles herself on the stool, it all comes back to her.

In the second half of the book, we are with Anna in the present. She is old, she is tired – and she is fighting a battle of wits against her children, who want her out of the house so that they can sell it and take the money. Anna has no intention of dying anywhere else than in her beloved house, the only thing in her life that has inspired any emotions whatsoever since the traumatic events in 1944. And so, Anna is back behind the enemy lines – but this time the enemies are her own flesh and blood, and her allies are two young people whom she discovers by chance and ropes in to help her.

Nathan and Gemma are young, in need of cash and genuinely curious about this old woman who does not hesitate to shoot a man in his shoulder when he threatens them. And when she starts talking about wanting to visit Normandy, they agree to come along to help her, both of them astounded at her fluent French, at her familiarity with the region. Anna is in search of closure. Nathan and Gemma are in search of the future, and yet, despite the sixty-year age gap they connect, and Anna tells them the story she has never told anyone before – not even her children.

The author must have expended endless hours on his research, recreating the Normandy of 1944 in full technicolour, all the way from Marie-Claire’s scratchy French knickers, to the relaxed jargon of the village whores. The casual reference to the rennet added to set the cheese, the odd detail about Marie-Claire’s clothes, of the pinholes in the French money  – it all comes together to create a whole, complete with young German soldiers, stubborn resistance fighters and one very lonely young woman, determined to do her duty no matter the cost. 

Back Behind Enemy Lines is not an easy book to read. It addresses issues that are complex and sensitive, such as Anna’s lack of affection for her children – after all, shouldn’t mothers always love their children? It describes a stunted life, the result of being emotionally crippled by events in the past. It addresses guilt and absolution, the need we all have, deep within, to somehow forgive ourselves. It is also a beautifully written book, with a prose that heaves with carefully contained emotion. This is an author who excels at subtexts, at hinting at the unsaid and allowing the reader to fill in the blanks. What could have been an orgy in heart-wrenching imagery is instead a contained and precise description, all the more powerful for being so sparse. Chris Bridge paints with carefully selected words. A measured prose marches across the pages, now and then flowering into exquisite metaphors, at times bursting apart to reveal the oceans of unhealed pain that lies deep within Anna.

Ultimately, Anna comes face to face with her past and makes the choices she has to make to retain her dignity in the face of her children’s pestering. A flawed and complex character, Anna is first of all a damaged human being, a woman for whom a few brief weeks in 1944 would define the rest of her life. I close the book and can’t but hope that somewhere, somehow, a man stands waiting for her, holding that sprig of white flowers that has haunted her throughout her life.

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Chris Bridge has so generously offered a FREE COPY of Back Behind Enemy Lines to one lucky winner. We will be randomly selecting a name, so to get yours in the hat simply comment below OR at our Facebook link, located here.

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About the author: 

Chris Bridge was born in Hull in 1947 and sent to boarding school aged nine. He studied English and philosophy at Nottingham University, choosing to go there because it had a superb mountaineering club. On graduating in 1969 he became an English teacher, thinking teaching would give him time to write novels. He was wrong about that but his love of the classroom quickly took over. 

In his professional life he never entirely abandoned writing. Until he became a head teacher he used to write the school shows, occasionally starting the process with asking who wanted to be in the cast and tailor-making a script to suit all those students. 

His poetry has been published in Tribune, Scrip, Poetry Nottingham, New Poetry, Pennine Platform and Other Poetry. He has also published articles about education in The Guardian, English in Education and The Independent. 

Back Behind Enemy Lines is his first novel. He is married and lives in North Yorkshire.

Chris Bridge can be found at Twitter and on his Amazon author page. Back Behind Enemy Lines may also be purchased at Amazon and Amazon UK.

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Anna Belfrage is the author of eight published books, all part of The Graham Saga. Set in the 17th century, the books tell the story of Matthew Graham and his time-travelling wife, Alex Lind. Anna can be found on Amazon, Twitter, Facebook and on her website. 

Sunday Wrap Up: Week ending June 8, 2014

From the week that was, which special remembrance for those without whom we would not be here today. We shall never forget. D-Day, June 6, 1944.

The Emperor's American

by Art McGrath

The adventures of Baltimorean Pierre Burns, in his telling of them in The Emperor’s American, start out with a bang—literally. The first words of the opening chapter are, “The ship was ablaze” and author Art McGrath keeps us on the edge of our seats until the very end. The book is divided into chapters, not all necessarily ending with cliffhangers, but infused nonetheless with a tincture of sorts, leaving readers reluctant to let go at natural stopping points. Perhaps Burns’s circumstances—unusual to say the least—play into that, or it could be where they lead him. 

Written as a letter from Burns to Napoleon’s surviving brother, Joseph Bonaparte, who has beseeched Burns to set to paper his experiences as an American in the emperor’s army, the novel takes readers through a bit over one year of life as a French soldier.

Pierre Burns, whose French mother raised him modeling a hatred for the English, never knew his French-born Scottish father, whose brutal murder during the American Revolution also informs Pierre’s perceptions. So it is that when his merchant ship is attacked by the British and sinks off the coast of northwestern France, he is recruited into what history later knows as the Grande Armée, a force preparing to invade England.

At the start, I didn’t know what to expect of Burns, whose strong personality in the hands of a lesser author might have endangered his likeability. However, he is equipped with a balanced self awareness that enables him often to recognize the effect his words may have on others, and an ability to evaluate himself with a fair amount of honesty.

In retrospect, I can’t really blame Monge for his attitude. The open officer’s slot should have allowed him to move up to the number two slot in the company. Instead, a foreigner who became an officer that very morning was to usurp his place, at least until I permanently assumed my duties as Ney’s aide-de-camp, which might not be for some time, unless the invasion commenced sooner than everyone thought.

Please go to Lisl's full review of The Emperor's American to enter the giveaway for a free copy. (Drawing will be Monday.)

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Lisl's Bits and Bobs: Lisl interviews Art McGrath, author of The Emperor's American

Good day, Art McGrath, and thanks for joining us for a little chat.

Thank you for having me, Lisl. I appreciate the chance to speak to you and your readers about my book and the Napoleonic era.

You “grew up fascinated with all things Napoleonic.” What first drew you to Napoleon?

I think in large part it was my French heritage. While my surname is Irish, I am French in all but name, with French-Canadian ancestry on both sides of the family. Though I realize now that French-Canadians were somewhat removed from the Revolutionary and Napoleonic conflicts, it still played a role in my interest. Besides, there was a fair amount of sympathy in Quebec for the Emperor of the French who was such a bitter enemy of the English. I even have a relative, a great-great-uncle, who was named Napoleon.

Were there a lot of others who shared your passion?

No, as I recall I was the only person I knew with that passion for Napoleon. It was a rather lonely interest and waxed and waned over the years.

In your reading you ran across references to Americans having served in the Grande Armée, paving the way for The Emperor’s American. What about Pierre Burns? Did you have to flesh him out over time or did you already seem to know him when his character made himself known to you?

For a time I saw the world through Pierre’s eyes, no matter what I did. I definitely already seemed to know him, or he knew me but I also had to flesh him out as I went. At first he was a little too perfect, but I hope I made him a little more vulnerable and gave him room to grow. He has quite the career ahead of him.

With Pierre wanting to tell his story, over your shoulder, so to speak, what would be the most important thing he wants our readers to know about himself? About Napoleon?

I think Pierre would want people to know he fought not for the sake of fighting but because he was doing what he thought was right. There is more than a streak of the adventurer in him, it is true, but he wouldn’t fight on what he thought was the wrong side.

As for Napoleon, Pierre would want readers to know that Napoleon would have been content with rebuilding France after the Revolution but the courts of Europe, especially England, would not allow it. Yes, Napoleon conquered most of Europe and perhaps after 1808 or 1809 became caught in his own aura of invincibility but he did not start out intending to crush Europe under his heel. He was pushed into it, largely by England. The victories of 1805-1807 were a defensive reaction by Napoleon.

What were some of the challenges of bringing Pierre’s story to life for him? Do you sometimes feel you must be cautious because you are also speaking for a number of others? That is, other Americans who served in Napoleon’s army?

I started writing the book as a way to discover how an American might end up in Napoleon’s army. I don’t feel too constrained or cautious  about those men because so little is known about them that they were a blank slate for me.

Catch the rest of Lisl chatting with Art McGrath right here.

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Paula's People: Guest spot, book blogger Sruti tells us her story

Books, Blogs, and Myself
Sruti Nayani

Wow! I get to write about Books, Blogs, and Myself in this guest blog. This guest blog was commissioned by a friend and fellow reviewer for her blog. Well, this was how it began.
It started with me being introduced to books by my father, at age six. I mention the date now, though it is not because I have an excellent memory but because I have written it down on the book. It was the 23rd of May 1988. I remember exactly where it was, and how it was built and the wonderful stuff it contained.

So, there I was, browsing at the store picking up a book or two. And what did I find? My first Enid Blyton! The Mystery of the Disappearing Cat, it was called. I bought it because I loved the cover. It had two girls and three boys, plus a dog and a cat, all in a garden and a wooden room and green hills in the distance. I loved the first girl’s haircut, (noticed it was a little like mine) short hair and playing with boys. Since I was a tomboy at that age, it fitted right into my bookshelf.

By the time I was nine I had read my first Shakespeare, As You Like It. And my love for books continued. I kept reading on and off through my career in journalism, but then it was time to start off on my blog. What you can see today at Sruti's BookBlog actually started with a publisher who mailed me about how he could send me a few books and if I reviewed them, I could not only keep them, but that they would be free too.

My first books 

You cannot imagine my delight! You can call me a silly girl, but there I was, never realising the power of the internet until then. And today, almost six months later, I am getting books from publishers and authors to review. I had reviewed a few books earlier, but I had no idea of how much bigger a book blog could be.

I also like to interview the authors and the editors of these books, because not only is it a fun thing to do, but because it lets me grow intellectually. And plus, I get a chance to put in a few of my own views, on writing, reading and editing and hopefully more.


I have written about four short stories, which are up online. But it took me a few years to discover blogging. The best thing about my blog is that it gives me a lot of space to write about books. I am now trying to expand my blog further and am reading up a lot of articles, with regard to writing, blogs and more. A fairly big boost is that my book is being read by Jacaranda Literary Agency. It is a book of short stories for children and tentatively called The Nap Time Adventures.

More from Sruti at this click.

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The Wolf and The Raven 

by Steven A. McKay

Scottish author Steven A. McKay first came to my attention with his version of the Robin Hood legend in his excellent and hugely entertaining book Wolf's Head: The Forest Lord, which put a wonderfully refreshing spin on the classic tale by relocating the outlaw from Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire to Barnsdale Forest in Yorkshire and has breathed new life into an old story.

The first book ended with Robin and his band of outlaws being offered the chance to earn a pardon for their crimes which would allow them to reclaim their former lives, a prospect they are all keen to grasp with both hands. The attractions of sleeping rough week after week far from home and loved ones had paled, and with Robin's young wife Matilda (not Maid Marion) heavily pregnant with their first child he is desperate to cast off his mantle of outlaw and return home to create the family life he craves. This book, The Wolf and The Raven, continues that story.

From the very first line the reader is plunged headlong into the carnage and chaos of medieval warfare as Robert and his men (lovers of the legend can rest assured that they will find all the regular characters here: Little John, Will Scarlet, Friar Tuck, Much the Millar's son et al.) find themselves fighting for their lives in the service of Thomas Plantagenet, Earl of Lancaster at the battle of Boroughbridge on the 16th of March 1322. The battle, part of a rebellion of various Marcher Lords led by Lancaster against King Edward II, ends in disaster for the rebels and Robin and his band are forced to flee for their lives once more. Back in the forests they are forced to face the realisation that their hoped for pardons are gone like chaff on the wind while Edward II takes his bloody revenge on those who dared challenge him.

That revenge is not only focused on those who were in command but extends to take in the poor serfs and tenants who were forced to take part in war through circumstance and fealty to various landowners. To find and crush these broken men Edward calls on the services of a man who will become Robin's nemesis. His name: Sir Guy of Gisbourne.

The Gisbourne of this book quickly becomes one of the great villains of fiction: a man of twisted desires and dreams who has suffered heartbreak and betrayal himself through the actions of his adulterous wife. Her betrayal coupled with his childhood fascination with the tales of King Arthur have convinced him he is almost the reincarnation of Lancelot and while he is a brutal, ruthless killer you can't help but feel that there is a weird sort of chivalry at the dark heart of everything Gisbourne does. Women are to be protected (despite his wife's adultery) while the enemies of the king can be killed without thought or mercy!

For the rest of Stuart's review, click here.

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Hayling Island plays big role in the D-day landings

Hayling Island

I live on a small island in the Solent just a few hundred yards off the mainland called Hayling Island. It is approximately 12 square miles in area, shaped like an inverted 'T' and measures 4.04 miles by 4.04 miles, and is a most beautiful place to live. Hayling Island also gets a mention in the Domesday Book, regarding Hayling's production of salt from the 11th century.

Hayling Island is a peaceful place to live, and famous for the First Windsurfing Board, A Roman Palace, Real Tennis Courts, and the graves of Princess Catherine Yurievskaya, the youngest daughter of Alexander II of Russia, who lived on Hayling Island for quite some years, and George Glas Sandeman, nephew of the founder of Sandeman Port.

A Phoenix Section of Mulberry Harbour

Hayling Island also played a large role in the war efforts of World War II. For those of us who live here it is very evident that Hayling played a large part in the construction of the components for the Mulberry Harbours, as we have one still in Langstone Harbour, now broken in two. Langstone Harbour, to the west side of Hayling, was also used as the base for landing craft before D-Day. This part of the island also has a the odd concrete pill-box along the roadside.

Hayling Island was the location for a mock invasion during the military exercise called Fabius during May 1944. these were the rehearsals and preparations for the D-Day landings.

Please click here to see the rest of Louise's tribute to hailing Island and its very special place in the D-Day invasions. 

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

Hayling Island Plays Big Role in the D-Day Landings

Louise Tells How Hayling Island, in Hampshire, UK, 

Played a Big Role in the D-Day Landings

Hayling Island

I live on a small island in the Solent just a few hundred yards off the mainland called Hayling Island. It is approximately 12 square miles in area, shaped like an inverted 'T' and measures 4.04 miles by 4.04 miles, and is a most beautiful place to live. Hayling Island also gets a mention in the Domesday Book, regarding Hayling's production of salt from the 11th century.

Hayling Island is a peaceful place to live, and famous for the First Windsurfing Board, A Roman Palace, Real Tennis Courts, and the graves of Princess Catherine Yurievskaya, the youngest daughter of Alexander II of Russia, who lived on Hayling Island for quite some years, and George Glas Sandeman, nephew of the founder of Sandeman Port.

A Phoenix Section of Mulberry Harbour

Hayling Island also played a large roll in the war efforts of World War II. For those of us who live here it is very evident that Hayling played a large part in the construction of the components for the Mulberry Harbours, as we have one still in Langstone Harbour, now broken in two. Langstone Harbour, to the west side of Hayling, was also used as the base for landing craft before D-Day. This part of the island also has a the odd concrete pill-box along the roadside.

Hayling Island was the location for a mock invasion during the military exercise called Fabius during May 1944. these were the rehearsals and preparations for the D-Day landings.

This is an extract from Wikipedia:

Exercise Fabius was a formal exercise for the Allied Operation Neptune in World War II. (the other was Exercise Tiger, which had occurred a week earlier.)

The exercise was planned to start on 2 May 1944, but bad weather delayed it to the next day.

It consisted of six separate exercises:

1. Fabius 1 - elements of the 1st Infantry Division and 29th Infantry Divisiion (United States) practiced amphibious landing at Slapton Sands.

1. Fabius 2 - elements of the 50th Infantry Division practiced landings at Hayling Island.

1. Fabius 3 - elements of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division practiced landings at Bracklesham Bay.

1. Fabius 4 - elements of the 3rd Infantry Division and associated units practiced landing at Littlehampton.

1. Fabious 5 and 6 - practice for American and British forces working on buildup of forces and supplies on Allied beaches.

They formed the largest amphibious training exercise of the war. As the final exercise before Operation Neptune, it resembled closely the final operation and no major changes could be made to Operation Neptune.

There is also one other exceptional thing that Hayling Island is famous for, but at the time was kept secret during the war. It was a covert unit of The Royal Navy, called COPP; Combined Operations Pilotage Parties, and was based at the Hayling Island Sailing Club, on the South East hook of Hayling. Set up in 1943, its main purpose was test and improve the invasion techniques. They trained as frogmen, canoeists, they used small submarines to check Normandy's beaches ahead of the D-Day landings. The men from COPP, among the many other things that they did, also shone beacons to guide all the Allied landing crafts onto the shore. They also surveyed enemy beaches in the Far East, India, Algeria, and Sicily, all under cover.

Now that we are all commemorating the 70th Anniversary of World War II, it's time to celebrate the roll that these magnificent few played. Here on Hayling Island a memorial has been erected to the men of COPP. 

On Wednesday, 21st May 2014 Dan Snow, TV historian, lead the honours for the COPP heroes of Hayling Island, and their vital contributions to the success of the Normandy landings of D-Day on 6th June 1944.

Excerpt from The Hayling Islander Newspaper reporting on the occasion.

Young and old gathered on the seafront to take part in a colourful tribute to a Hayling-based unit which played a key role in the Second World War.

[W]ar veterans and their families were joined by VIP visitors, serving soldiers from the 47 Regiment Royal Artillery, army cadets, pupils from the Hayling college, high-ranking military officers and a large crowd of Islanders, for the final dedication of the new stone memorial at Beachlands.

Among the speakers were BBC presenter Sally Taylor and television historian Dan Snow. they both spoke of the courage of the COPPs, who used canoes and miniature submarines to approach their targets, often swimming ashore in complete darkness to survey landing areas and take samples of beach material.

John Ashford, from Surrey, is one of only five surviving Coppists. the 89-year-old spoke fondly of his time in the unit. He said: 'I'm very proud to be here. It's so good to be able to see two ex-Coppists. It's sad that there's no more, but that's inevitable. The whole thing is a remarkable achievement. I was one of the youngest.

When you're 20 you've lots of self-confidence, you're terribly arrogant and quite convinced you can do anything.. When I was invited to join COPP I never considered for one moment not t[o.']

[A]lso taking part were Lord Richards of Herstmonceux and the grandson of Lord Mountbatten, the Honorable Timothy Knatchbull.

He said: 'It is the rugged truth that COPP is not well-known. It was only in the 1960s that COPP was declassified as an official secret. So it is a great responisibility that we have, particularly to the young people, to talk about the accomplishments of COPP. Of the men who risked everything - many of whom gave their live[s.']

The COPP Memorial at Hayling Island
On the right is Lady Patricia Knatchbull,
2nd Countess Mountbatten of Burma

Laurence Binyon wrote a seven verse poem called The Fallen, and was printed in The Times newspaper on 21st September 1914 in response to the high casualty rates of the British Expeditionary force at Mons and Le Cateau, of which the four lines of the fourth verse remain profoundly in our minds forever....

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

The website for CoppHeroes can be found here

Hayling COPP Heroes Memorial Facebook Page can be found here

Louise Rule is the author of Future Confronted

Louise can be found on Facebook here