Book Description

Set against the devastation that was France after Dunkirk, this is the story of a strange journey. The characters are a seventy-year-old Englishman, a young and beautiful French girl, and a group of children of various nationalities. When John Howard decides to end his holiday in the Jura Mountains, knowing nothing about the crumbling of the western front, he agrees to escort two young English children across France and home to England. The children are excited at the prospect of fresh experiences--and the man is worried that he has accepted a task that he is not well-fitted to fulfill. The journey starts. At first it is fun. But very soon the war makes itself felt. Trains have stopped--busses are being attacked--roads are choked with refugees. And John Howard takes on heavier responsibilities as his little band grows, child after child, mile after mile. At Chartres fate brings him surprising aid in the person of Nicole, who will help him on toward Brest. The children, to whom John Howard is father and mother combined, play about him quite undaunted by the tragic scenes. But travel becomes more difficult and hazardous, the danger of discovery greater--until their arrival at the coast and the realization of their worst fears. It is then that the courage of the old Englishman is put to the severest test. --