Right from the start I refused to accept what my father thought was a given, that as a woman I was disadvantaged, a victim of fate.
‘Ah, Mademoiselles Le General! I’d love to be taking orders from you!’ Lizzie laughs, saluting and kissing Ada while straightening the collar of her white shirt which she wore tucked into tailored khaki pants, complete with a wide military-style tan belt, tan boots, and carrying Pa’s old leather valise.
Diary, 3 September: Pressing forward towards Mouquet Farm through what was once the village of Pozières and is now a mound of rubble. What does it mean to re-take a place that no longer exists? Words cannot describe the barrage; the noise, dense, as though it had mass, filling the air, and physically blasting me into another reality.
Our forward trenches are carpeted with the dead; once the wounded are dressed, we must put them outside. They’ll be laying them in straw along the Bapaume Road, soon. You could fill the cricket ground at home with tarthe men lost out here, Remy explains.
Remy wasn’t Picasso, although the master liked his work, and you weren’t Piaf or that shameless Josephine Baker, all feathers, and naked bits, but we could listen to you on the radio.
Almost overnight Paris became a pitiful place. Colonised by the invader, bolts of cloth, shoes, and the best of Haut Couture were soon on their way to Berlin, while, heavy with remorse and guilt, an eerie hush lies over Paris’ deserted boulevards and allèes, dotted with shops looted by locals, even before they are boarded up, cars are gone from the streets, except for the polished black Daimler-Benz driven by the elite German officers. Everywhere is rife with rumour and innuendo, intrigue, and denunciations; lies, mistrust, and hatred metastasising across the city; a creeping miasma of fear seeping into its every corner. And yet, Ada must sing and Remy make art.
* * *
To read Remy’s Book is like overhearing a conversation. Lyrical and compelling. Far-reaching and ambitious in scope, even playful at times, it is set across countries and timelines.
– Lesley Halm, Praxis Editing
Fabulous! A vintage read, with a great finish! Restores my faith in the novel.
– Ron Wise, Wise Wines
Just the sort of novel I want with me when I’m in the field. dra
– Tim Clifton, former Geologist
