Foyle and Sam
I f finished reading The Welsh Girl by Peter Ho Davies last night. I also watched Foyle's War on the ABC and they both covered very similar themes - life in rural England and Wales during World War 2 - how the locals treated the german prisoner's of war and what it must have been like to return home after being away for so long.
The Welsh Girl has three stories in it - one about Rudolph Hess and the interrogations he faced by an English intelligence officer, when he was captured after his flight from Germany during the War - did he really lose his memory or was he pretending.
The other two stories are more interesting and believable. There is the story of Esther who lives with her father on a farm in a remote coastal part of Wales. She is 17 and works at the village pub as well as helping run the house and farm with her father. She is obviously bright and bored with her life, and is seduced by a fellow who is preparing to leave for the front in France. He does not behave honourably or kindly towards her and leaves her to face the consequences of a one night stand.
The final story is about Karsten, a german who surrenders to the English and placed in a prisoner of war camp in Wales - not far from where Esther lives. He is young and is filled with self hate for himself at being captured.
Esther and Karsten eventually meet and their lives are touched by Rotheram, the English intelligence officer who comes to meet Karsten and interview him after his escape from the camp in Wales.
Last night's episode of Foyles War includes a young woman who has not seen her husband for five years, she has a child by him, who has never met his father. He returns home to discover a german prisoner of war with his wife and child as he has been working on the farm for the last eighteen months. He is deeply scarred by his war experience and reacts with extreme anger and resentment towards this german fellow who has only treated his wife with kindness and dignity.
Both these insights into life in Britain during this time in history are fascinating. War seems to bring out the best and the worst in human behaviour. There is the contrast of the behaviour of the british towards their women and the behaviour of the german prisoners of war to the women they encounter.
I love Foyle's War. Christopher Foyle is a silent man who is understated in what he says and does, but he is a good reader of others and picks up little clues and usually unravels the crimes he is investigating. I love his relationship with Sam, his driver who is bubbly and gregarious and copes with Foyle's silence admirably. How people respond when faced with tragedy, particularly the deaths of many friends and family during war is something that I have no experience of - we have no idea what life must have been like during a war of this scale and intensity. Both this book and program raise this issue well and provide much to ponder.
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