In May 1940 Germany invaded France and within six weeks had triumphantly seized control of Paris. The Allies' complacency was replaced with a sense of helplessness as they were defeated by a new kind of dynamic warfare.
Darkness in Paris (Peter Ferguson, Scribe, $35 tpb, ISBN 1920769439, May) ****
With so much literature written about the Nazi occupation of France and the Allied resistance, author Peter Ferguson was stepping on well-trodden ground when he decided to write a book about Paris in 1940. But it is a very interesting point in the war—it’s that tender stage of old Pétain and young de Gaulle, when Chamberlain stepped aside for Churchill and when Hitler’s ambition was at an all-time high. Although the jacket cover promises a focus on Paris, it does take half the book for the reader to be delivered into the heart of the Nazi invasion—but it’s worth the wait. Ferguson includes a necessary overview of World War I and the rise of Nazism, then the slow, stunned, painfully disorganised Allied response—but all in all an enjoyable journey. Ferguson never allows the reader to forget just how much hung in the balance and how close the Allies came to losing everything. The skilled narrative and clever choice of dialogue (Churchill is always a delight) creates a history that reads like a novel, and despite the obvious ending, keeps the reader turning the pages with great gusto.Erin O’Brien is AB&P’s editorial assistant
This review from Australian Bookseller & Publisher magazine is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2005, Thorpe-Bowker