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A Scotswoman In Occupied France. Divided Loyalties

A Scotswoman In Occupied France. Divided Loyalties

by Janet Adam Smith (Editor), Janet Teissier du Cros (Author), Richard Cobb (Foreword)

  • Used

    Paperback 2001

    $3.50
Synopsis

Out of the war years comes this memoir of life as a wife and mother in occupied France during World War II. In this candid and poignant account, Janet Teissier du Cros powerfully evokes the international political atmosphere of the time and its effects within her own family. As a Scotswoman married to a Frenchman, du Cros found herself enmeshed in a web of dual loyalties. The innate suspicion bred by old enmity, the attack on the French fleet at Mers-el-Kebir in 1940, the handling of Dunkirk: all meant she faced far more hostility as a Briton than might be expected. Mme. du Cros writes in the main of the trials of existence, both in Southern France, where her husband Francois's family lived, and in Paris, where she joined him after his release from German imprisonment. Witty and poignant accounts of the determined joy of shared Christmases and the increased risk of bearing her third child are set against the dull throb of the progress of war, which bursts into the foreground towards the close with the Allied landings.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
 Pages: 368
 Edition: Reprint
 Publisher: Canongate Classics
Published: 07 Apr 2001
ISBN 10: 0862413753
ISBN 13: 9780862413750

Media Reviews
One of the vividest pictures of everyday life during the Occupation years that I remember ... An extraordinarily intelligent and attractive book. * * The Guardian * *
This is a book to treasure, not only for its obvious and thrilling interest, but for its personal and spiritual value, and the sheer quality of its writing. * * The Scotsman * *
Author Bio
Janet Grierson (1905-1990), was the youngest daughter of Sir Herbert Grierson, the distinguished literary scholar who was at the time Professor of English at Aberdeen University. The family moved to Edinburgh in 1915 when Grierson took up the chair of English at the university there. Janet showed a rare musical talent as a girl, and became a private pupil of Donald Tovey, Professor of music at Edinburgh, a distinguished critic and concert pianist, and a composer in his own right. Tovey encouraged the young pianist to continue her musical studies in Vienna during the 20s. Janet met her future husband Francois Tiessier du Cros, from an old French Protestant family while he was visiting Edinburgh. They were married in 1930, and lived in France where Francois was a civil engineer. In 1938 the couple, with their two young sons, were in Edinburgh again where Francois had a year's leave to do research in Physics. They returned to France and Francois joined his regiment when the war broke out. Janet and the boys stayed with her in-laws and then moved to a family cottage in the Cevennes. In this remote place, short of food and politically estranged from her husband's family, she spent most of the war. A third son was born in 1942 in Montpellier, and the couple were finally reunited in Paris in 1944. Divided Loyalties tells how Janet Teissier du Cros weathered these hard years in occupied France with courage, wit and fortitude. After the war Janet worked as a translator. Her fourth child, a daughter was born in 1946, and her husband returned to the study of Physics the following year. During the 1950s Janet contributed monthly broadcasts from Paris for BBC Woman's Hour, and Divided Loyalties, her only book, was published to considerable acclaim and Book Society recommendation in 1962. She is buried at the family home in Mandiargues.