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www.telegraph.co.uk 
" Not so fair in love and war
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 14/08/2005
This book, according to its subtitle, tells "a true story of love, war and espionage". The cover strikes a poignant note; a young naval officer embraces a girl beneath a station clock, as a ship sinks in the background. Throughout his account of his subject's adventures during the Second World War, Edward Marriott does his best to convince us that they were indeed a romantic and heroic couple. He does not altogether succeed; but he has certainly uncovered an extraordinary story.
The basic facts are clear. Claude Peri and Madeleine Bayard were French spies. They met in Indochina in the late 1930s, became lovers, travelled and worked together, were secretly based aboard a merchant ship, Le Rhin, as saboteurs, and were in Paris in June 1940 when the Germans marched in. Determined to fight on, they rejoined Le Rhin in Marseilles and ensured that she sailed for Gibraltar, where Claude offered their services to the British. Despite opposition from his French superiors and most of his crew, he took over Le Rhin and sailed her to Wales.
By early 1941 Le Rhin had become HMS Fidelity and Claude and Madeleine had become Commander Jack Langlais ("the Englishman") and Wren Officer Madeleine Barclay (after the bank). Seconded to SOE (the renowned Special Operations Executive) they made two expeditions to the Mediterranean during 1941 to land and pick up agents; neither was successful, and during the second there was a suicide on board which led to an inquiry into the way the ship was run.
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After spending most of 1942 training on the Isle of Wight, in December Fidelity joined a convoy sailing for the Far East. She was sunk by U-boats on December 30; there were no survivors and, because of her irregular origins and activities, her fate, and that of the 300 people on board, was kept secret.
Marriott's researches have been prodigious. He has scoured French and British naval and intelligence archives and tracked down anyone who knew anything about Claude and Madeleine, their backgrounds, their relationship and what went on aboard the ship. The trouble with this material is that it is either official and impersonal, or fragmentary and unreliable. Both of them told tall tales about themselves; both had plenty to hide. Marriott always gives them the benefit of the doubt: "He volatile yet charming; she blonde, feline, a markswoman."
In fact, neither of them was particularly attractive or agreeable. Madeleine seems to have shown emotion only for her dog, and once, when drunk, instructed her fellow officers to lower their trousers so that she could paint their genitals with red ink. Claude's arrogance, vile temper and violent outbursts - he was given to punching subordinates in the face -- are excused as the consequence of a passionate temperament under strain.
Marriott even presents them as better-looking, more glamorously French, than they appear from their photographs - he writes, more than once, of Madeleine's gleaming golden hair and long tanned limbs, whereas she appears to have had fairish curls and short, if neat, legs. Claude was bullet-headed and heavy.
To enliven the tale, Marriott falls into the trap of occasionally, and rather obviously, making things up. The opening pages are a vivid description of how Madeleine was raped on her Vietnamese rubber plantation, which may or may not be true; thereafter there are all too frequent references to the sun or moon gleaming on the water, or tall trees standing out against a winter sky.This is a pity, as it makes one doubt the general veracity of his account, especially as there are no notes to indicate how he has used his material.
The truth seems to be that Claude was a fantasist and a thug, of the kind that can be useful in wartime, and that Madeleine was a tough operator. They were certainly brave, and patriotic, but in fact as a team they achieved little and caused their superiors and colleagues a great deal of trouble.
Perhaps wisely, Marriott does not try to understand their natures. He is content to tell a ripping yarn, which could well end up as an entertaining and cheerfully inaccurate film. " Laurent Laloup le vendredi 20 juillet 2007 Contribution au livre ouvert de Madeleine Victorine Bayard alias Barclay Montrée dans le livre ouvert de 2 Claude André Michel Péri alias Jack Langlais | |
