Never mind that Martyn, we want more.

Thanks to Val and Malcolm for arranging the event, and especially to everyone who took the trouble to travel to Le Riols on a pretty grim evening. I was very touched by your keen interest and kind remarks afterwards. My only regret is that I talked too much! 

Instead I should have let you hear more from the veterans I've interviewed, but there will hopefully be an opportunity in the not too distant future when I can show you a selection of excerpts from my own interviews with more men and women from the 'secret war' - French as well as British, and especially three veterans of the 'local' Maquis d'Ornano about whom Ross knows so much more than me that he's written a book about them. Maybe we can devise some kind of double act!

If there is a 'next time' then you'll inevitably also hear on-screen memories from the former French SOE agent, Bob Maloubier DSO, Ld'H, CdeG. He was ninety last Saturday and not too well, so I'm thinking of him a lot this week and in touch with his family for updates. It's no surprise that Bob's wartime bullet wounds in the liver and lungs (received while escaping German arrest) and the results of a badly broken foot when parachuting, are now aggravating other ailments. 

There's a connection here with 'The Real Charlotte Grays' in that on Bob's second SOE mission he parachuted into France with Violette Szabo, probably the best known of all SOE's women agents and a great friend of his. Following Violette’s capture Bob and his comrades had a plan in place to free her from Limoges prison, but unfortunately she was taken to a prison near Paris before they could take action.

I've been privileged over the last five years to spend quite a lot of time with Bob, and have formally interviewed him twice on camera. I think I mentioned last evening that two years ago I was able to reunite him with the RAF pilot who, in February 1944, clandestinely flew him out of France after he'd been so badly wounded - they hadn't seen each other since that flight, so their reunion was really quite something!

After WW2 Bob Maloubier joined the new French secret service and so he is a 'real James Bond' in fact. You can see and hear him in English here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSOwLujJTnw. The commentary on this clip from AFPTV is sometimes generalised and not entirely accurate, but at least it gives a flavour of Bob's character and spirit. (You can click to skip the ad!)

Val already has a long list I gave her of books about SOE and other aspects of the 'secret war' - and for French speakers here's the Amazon.fr link to Bob Maloubier's recent auto-biography"Agent secret de Churchill": http://www.amazon.fr/Agent-secret-Churchill-Bob-Maloubier/dp/284734795X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1360148106&sr=1-1

As with my talk, I've now also managed to 'go on a bit' in this message! So I'll just say thanks again to everyone there last evening and I hope we can do it all again some time soon.

Val says Martyn's reference to Ross, is Ross Jenkins of Puycelci who will have a book published late summer on local resistance characters. Will give you more and accurate info. come the time.

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