A Schoolmaster's War
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Harry Ree, British Agent in the French Resistance
Edited by Jonathan Ree
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Format: PaperPrice: $16.00
“A beautiful collection of writings by schoolmaster-turned-secret agent Harry Rée. . . . Memoirs, postwar broadcasts and letters from French comrades combine to paint a picture of everyday heroism, treachery and tragedy.”—Robert Gildea, author of Fighters in the Shadows: A New History of the French Resistance
“In a book devoted to heroism in its true, self-effacing form, that modesty seems entirely appropriate, and is a tribute both to Ree and to the son who put it together.”—Andrew Holgate, The Sunday Times
A pacifist school teacher at the start of the war, Harry Rée changed his mind with the fall of France in 1940. He was deployed into a secret branch of the British army and parachuted into central France in April 1943. He soon won the confidence of local resisters and directed a series of dramatic sabotage operations. Rée’s memoirs, superbly edited by his son, the philosopher Jonathan Rée, offer unique insights into life in the French Resistance, and into the anxiety, folly and pity of war.
“Harry Rée, teacher, pacifist, defender of liberty, was a great man, dear to his family and friends, a hugely respected educationist, and a quiet hero. This important book is long overdue. Read it and be inspired by a life well and bravely lived.”—Michael Morpurgo
“This is the real thing. As an account The Schoolmaster’s War scores highly in terms of detail and reliability. It lacks any sense of myth making, concealment or boasting — qualities quite common in many SOE memoirs.”—Sebastian Faulks
“A beautiful collection of writings by schoolmaster-turned-secret agent Harry Rée … Memoirs, postwar broadcasts and letters from French comrades combine to paint a picture of everyday heroism, treachery and tragedy.”—Robert Gildea, author of Fighters in the Shadows: A New History of the French Resistance
“Anyone interested in occupied France or British special operations during the Second World War needs to read this book … Rée emerges as a man who acted as though he was a character in a story by G.A. Henty but thought and wrote as though he was a character in a novel by Iris Murdoch.”—Richard Vinen, author of The Unfree French: Life under the Occupation
Publication Date: April 27, 2021
