As a frequent visitor to the Pyrénées-Orientales and a keen hiker in its mountains I only had a vague idea of the area's history. I had occasionally passed an old sentry post above the remote village of Mantet and had known that its occupants were once German troops. I had read some accounts of Pyrenean escape routes. Rosemary Bailey's book is a potent antidote to this lack of knowledge since it thoroughly covers this history in the turbulent period of 1939-1944.
The title "Love and War in the Pyrenees" gives a clue to one of the book's core themes of opposites. In the Spanish Civil War the Republicans fight the Nationalists causing refugees to pour over the Pyrenees, the natural border between Spain and France. Rosemary Bailey's abbey Corbiac is the abode where a young couple, Pierre and Amélie, live before they are parted in the general WW2 mobilisation and the "Phoney War". Both continue to communicate by letter from contrasting locations. When full war breaks out Pétain's collaborating Vichy government is countered by de Gaulle's London-based Free French. The German-backed French Milice (militia) battles the Resistance. Above all, the French Revolution's freedom for Jewish people is overturned by their incarceration in southern camps of appalling hardship. The book covers these opposing sides and the often shady and confusing spectrum between each ideological pole.
Love and War includes the following chapters; Return to the Land, The Spanish Retirada, The Camps of Scorn, A Quaker Refuge, The Phoney War, The Fall of France, Defeat, Surrender on Demand, Escape Networks, Rivesaltes, Occupation, Resistance, Liberation and Reprisal. In addition to this clear chronological account the author covers some history of the area and explains how things are today in order to bookend the story both in the past and in the present. Firsthand descriptions from surviving (and now quite elderly) participants in the events are supplemented by a comprehensive batch of written accounts from those that have passed away.
The writing is learned, the subjects varied and the different threads skilfully brought together. Love and War is a book for those seeking to learn more about the area or for the holidaymakers landing at Perpignan's Rivesaltes airport, heading to either the ski slopes or the beach. It's a reminder of what once happened there, not so far away. Throughout the story, the timeless Pyrenees stands watch over the passing confrontations below until she shows her power in a massive, almost biblical, deluge.
