Priscilla by Nicholas Shakespeare

 When Nicholas Shakespeare asked his mother her opinion of what his aunt did in the war, she said that she imagined that in those circumstances you'd do anything to survive. Priscilla's friend Gillian Sutro seemed a bit more judgemental. This is rather a harrowing book about life in wartime France, which lets the reader have his or her own opinion about Priscilla's actions. It has been called Shakespeare's 'love letter to his aunt' but I didn't see it that way, although it was sympathetic.

Priscilla had rather an unhappy life. She had neglectful parents, an extremely traumatic abortion at a very young age (which she didn't need to have), and a failed marriage to an older man who had a family which looked down on her as a 'parvenu'. Stuck in France, when the Nazis invaded, she endured a terrible imprisonment at Besancon, where many English people were imprisoned by the Nazis.This is hardly written about, but many died of cold, food poisoning and disease. Priscilla was lucky to get out. This experience probably made her think differently about survival in wartime France, and she began to associate with collaborators, some of them very high up. Whether she knew that they were collaborators is another matter, but it is extremely likely that she did.

I preferred Priscilla's friend Gillian to her, but it's certainly a fascinating story. I would rather read about the French Resistance, but after reading this book, it is hard to disagree with Nicholas Shakespeare's mother. Unfortunately, we live in dangerous times, and it is not that unlikely that we could have to face the moral dilemma of where our loyalties lie.

I read this book for Rose City Reader's 23 for '23 Book Challenge.