A Fool's Alphabet - Sebastian Faulks

On Green Dolphin Street - Sebastian Faulks

from one of those 1950s, murder, intrigue and romance genre black and white films. The classy clothes, the elegant postures, the polite language and that atmosphere. In reading Sebastian Faulks' new novel, On Green Dolphin Street, those were the type of images playing in my mind. Faulks is a respected British author; Birdsong (his tale of the first world war) is one of my all time favourite novels. However, I was extremely disappointed with the follow up, Charlotte Gray, which I found forced, poorly plotted and deeply shallow. On Green Dolphin Street on the other hand has received rave reviews and large critical acclaim, so I returned to Faulks hoping to find ...

Charlotte Gray - Sebastian Faulks

I was expecting this to be an intelligently written second world war thriller. I was surprised by the degree to which this is not in fact a thriller novel. It is however, brilliantly devised and written and very much about the second world war. The setting is largely France, dealing with French responses to the occupation - unlike the image created by 'allo allo', most people were not in the resistence, many collaborated, including the then Vichy government. In war time, people often do terrible things, and this book does not shy away from exploring the inhumanity that war encourages. The book follows the lives of a range of characters - centered on Charlotte Gray. ...

Charlotte Gray - Sebastian Faulks

Doing for the 2nd World War what he did for the 1st in "Birdsong", Sebastian Faulks presents a wonderful picture of life in France during the war years. Charlotte Gray is sent to Occupied France to run an errand for an undercover special operations unit. However she has a mission of her own - to find her lover, and airman lost in action over France. She stays in France, against her orders, and settles in the small town of Lauverette whilst she tries to find information about her lover. Hiding her identity from the townspeople she suffers, along with them, at the hands of the occupying german army.She finds work and friendship with a cantankerous artist, ...