A Packhorse Called Rachel

A Fascinating Tale, And True, Beautifully Written, Fay Weldon This piece is based on personal experience, and the description of historical events is as true as memory will allow, although all names have been changed. It is beautifully written and at the same time realistic. It contains some fine characterisations of the friends and foes the heroine meets as it describes the difficulties resistance fighters, the Maquis, in the Auvergne had to face: the climate prevailing in winter, the Vichy traitors and the hostility of ordinary people. She succeeds in her mission, overcoming in an incongruous friendship the initial hostility and mistrust of the lecherous and alcoholic farmer Raboullet whom she has to rely on, the ire of the Gestapo and the betrayal of St Pr who denounces her as a terrorist.