A Foreign Field

A wartime romance | survival saga and murder mystery set in rural France during the First World War | from the bestselling author of ‘Operation Mincemeat’ and ‘Agent Zig-Zag’.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 | where 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 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 extraordinary 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?’ In this new updated edition the mystery is finally solved.