Old Etonian once termed Damon Runyonesque because of articles on horse racing sent from Australia...always been fascinated by WWII and especially the complex French situation which exposed the best and the worst of human nature of the citizens in an occupied country. Research for books helped by living for 20 years in France where he worked for leading press agency Agence France Presse (AFP), a country that is still haunted by its past and for not having dealt with it properly because de Gaulle preferred to heal the wounds and create a myth of all round resistance save a few misguided bad eggs, a minority of whom paid the heaviest penalty.