Fair stood the wind for France door H.E. Bates

Nr. of pages: 155
Time spend on reading: one month

Summary John Franklin, flyer of an aircraft, flies his plane over France. Suddenly one of the propellers brake off and the plane crashes. Happily none of the crew die, except John is badly wounded on his arm. Because they don’t know whether they are on occipied or unoccipied area they have to leave right a way. The next day they find a house. There’s a girl standing in the yard. Frankie goes towards the girl and the girl says they can stay at here place. They spend the whole day in the mill, only at night they are allowed to come over to the house. Once the father has arranged some passes two men of the aircrew leave, Taylor and Godwin. Now Frankie, Sandy and O’Connor are left behind. Frankie’s arm is very messed up and when Sandy and O’Connor also have left, his arm get amputated. Frankie and the girl Françoise built up a relationship with each other. When the situation at home is critical they leave together in a boat. When they rest up ahead the stream, the meet a man that gives them two bicyles in trade of the boat. He says that they can’t make it to unoccupied zone with the boat. They travel for a couple of days and finally they reach Marseille. One day Franklin is searching for an English priest to marry Franklin and Françoise. Unfortunately there isn’t an Englisch ‘padre’. But when Franklin is walking back to his place, he come across a German millitair asking for his papers. When he hears shots he run away but the shots were not meant for him. When he’s hiding he sees the other person, and on that moment Franklin’s heart stand still. It’s Connie! He takes O’Connor back to his place, they both try to arrange papers for O’Connor. One day they meet an English and a Scottish woman, Miss Campbell and Miss Baker. They give papers to sergeant O’Connor and advise them to get the hell out of France that night. That night Franklin, O’Connor and Françoise take the train to leave the counrty, at the frontier al passengers have to get out the train because the gendarmes have to check all passes. Franklin gets through the checking, and then Françoise is checked but Franklin loses sight of Françoise and he can’t find O’Connor either. Franklin thinks they have already boarded the train and search in the train for the two. But they aren’t there. When he looks out he sees O’Connor running with gendarmes after him. O’Connor graps his gun and shoot one of the gendarmes dead. Unfortunately, O’Connor is shot to and dies. Franklin can see the whole thing in front of his eyes. At that moment Françoise stands right next to him, Frankie first thinks it’s a reflection of the girl but later he realises it’s real! They cry in each others arms, but not beacuse of France, nor O´Connor, but for all agony that was happening in the world.

Personages

John Franklin: The leading character of this book. It’s all about him and later on he and Françoise. Françoise: The girl by the house. Further in the book the lover of Franklin. It strikes me that she always has some intention on her face that nothing is going on. O’Connor: A bit of Franklin’s friend. Frankie can get the best around with him of the aircrew. Sandy: Franklin thinks he’s snooze. He has always those crazy observations. Taylor: Franklin don’t like him. He’s a quiet person and was flirting with Françoise. Godwin: Not much is said about him in this book. Only that he’s one of the sergeants from the crash. Pierre: A good boy, lives at the house where the aircrew categorised. He helps with rescuing. Father of Françoise: A bit of a strange men, arrange papers but is very strange. He shoot himself because his love of his life is killed by the germans.

- The book is told in an observation wise. Somebody sees the whole sory passing by without mentioned in the book. - The story dures something about ¾ year. It’s not mentioned in the book but you can make it up from the story. - The book is chronological written. There are many flashbacks but the story is on one line.

My opinion I think this is a rather good English book. Often when I read an English book I find it difficult to understand the subjects and so. I understand the words but not the story. When I read this book, I didn’t have this. Also when I read it I pictured the story in my head. I found that strange because it’s an English book and I read in English but though I was able to place myself in the situation of that book. I will recommend this book to other students. It’s a good book, not to hard to read and it won’t take to long to get through.