Readers of this blog will know by now that when I love a book, I really love a book and I never let up in my constant mention of same. I am doing this once again, quite unashamedly. In my list of Books of the 
Year I nominated Resistance by Agnes Humbert as THE book of the year and as it was a foot note on my post, I did not want anybody who missed reading this list, not to know just how much I admire and love this book. You will have to forgive my haranguing you but I just so want you all to be inspired by this amazing woman.
Barbara Mellor, who translated the book so wonderfully, has sent me the following quotes and I see I am in very elevated company indeed in my appreciation, all of whom put it so much more succinctly than I.
If you have not read this yet, then please do so. It is going to take a mighty book indeed to match this in 2009!
- ‘Many fine, memorable and enduring books have been written about war and human conflict by eye-witnesses and combatants, winners and losers, but most of them stay in the field of harrowing testimony, of personal history, of fascinating documented fact. Very few indeed move beyond into the realm of literature … Agnès Humbert’s Résistance can now join that elite few’ William Boyd
- ‘Her narrative combines evocations of moments of intense suffering with vivid character sketches, ironic asides, snatches of dialogue and brave repartee to sadistic guards. She weaves all this together by inventing a narrative voice that is sober and testifying, sardonic and humorous, always precise … This is a beautiful and powerful work of literature’ Michèle Roberts, The Times
- ‘An astonishing work, almost unbearable to read in places, yet ultimately inspiring. It evokes horror and compels admiration … The diary gives us a remarkable record of life in occupied Paris and of the first stirrings of resistance … A remarkable book by a remarkable and brave woman’ Allan Massie, Literary Review
- ‘A timely translation … It is this ebullience, this unconquerable spirit that makes her diary stand out from so many other records of French – indeed European – resistance to Hitler and Nazism. She is such a fighter, such a character … Her personality bounces through every page of her diary … Humbert’s memoir will remain one of the most valuable testaments we have to Hitler’s policy of “extermination through labour”’ Carmen Callil, Guardian
- ‘Told with intelligent wit and without a shred of self-pity, this is a resolute yet quietly poignant testament not only to man’s capacity for cruelty but ultimately to the indefatigable human spirit of resistance. Even writing about her darkest experiences, Humbert still conveys enough resilience and humour to make you want to stand up and cheer’ Waterstones Books Quarterly
- ‘Humbert was an unlikely candidate to lead the French in the fight against Hitler, but her bravery and will to survive have long been admired. This new translation will give greater exposure to her revolutionary wartime recollections’ Michael Taube, Financial Times
· ‘Astonishingly vivid … Her ability to recreate in painstaking detail her days – as an activist, slave worker, freed prisoner and potential nemesis of the fleeing Nazis – transforms the book from honourable reportage into a remarkable work … Rooted in its time and circumstances, hers is both a timeless testament and a timely one’ Aamer Hussein, Independent
- ‘This is both a historically important document and a fine literary achievement … Barbara Mellorhas done a wonderful job as translator … The name of Agnès Humbert should now join the ranks of Lucie Aubrac and Violette Szabo, women whose bravery and dignity during the occupation deserves to be remembered for many generations to come’ Christian House, Independent on Sunday
- ‘A long-neglected memoir of the Resistance provides an intimate view of war … It is now translated for the first time in English, and one can only marvel at its 60-year neglect … Résistancehas flashes of self-deprecating humour, and its affirmation of human dignity instils a kind of joy in the reader … A marvel of luminous precision and restraint, Résistance, beautifully translated by Barbara Mellor, is a book of commemoration as well as a documentary’ Ian Thomson, Sunday Times
- ‘A superb account of a warrior in combat, based on a daily diary kept in Paris and written up after the war to give a graphic description of the years of captivity … [Humbert] showed an astonishing light-hearted courage. She and her comrades faced death almost gaily, accepting the fate they had chosen and glad to have made that choice. Resisters like her are a true elite, different from the rest of us’ Daily Mail
- ‘The book that moved me the most this year was Résistance, Agnes Humbert’s memoir of her stint in the French Resistance … A vivid picture of the cruellest of times, written with an astounding humour, courage and absence of self-pity’ Jenny McCartney, Sunday Telegraph Books of the Year
- ‘Humbert’s book quickly became a classic in France, but has never previously been published in Britain. It is an astonishingly vivid testament to one woman’s bravery, humanity and sheer dogged resilience, and, more than any number of academic tomes, it allows us to understand the visceral reality of life in this torrid period of history’ Sunday Times History Books of the Year
- ‘With thrilling immediacy, this book guides us through the first stumbling steps of a disparate cell of writers, linguists, historians and social gadflies in Occupied France’ Tobias Grey, Washington Post Best Books of 2008
- ‘An artist’s eye, a woman’s tongue and a mischievous spirit add up to the most unlikely and vivid account of the ordinariness of evil’ The Times History Books of the Year
Well, what are you waiting for......
