This book is left over from my autumn challenge of 2025 when I tried to read 25 books which had been ignored for far too long, in three months. I am very glad, however, that I didn’t put this one back on the pile for later because I found it an unusual story.
Tomorrow to be Brave is a memoir by Susan Travers. I have a large format paperback version of this book which I remember buying in a charity shop at a very cheap price as I thought that I might enjoy it. The book was published in 2000 but the events it portrays took place in WW2 – the author waited until many of the main characters were dead before she wrote her story.
Susan was born in Britain but her parents went to France to live when she was a child. She grew up with a privileged but distant family and became a socialite in the 1930s. When the war broke out she travelled to London and volunteered with the Free French army of General de Gaulle. She served in Norway and Estonia but spent most of the war in North Africa. Although she had trained as a nurse she became a driver for several doctors and then was allocated to the French Foreign Legion where she was the driver, and the lover, of a General. As a result of her position she became the only woman present at a number of battles and her actions earned her France’s highest medals of honour. After the war she joined the Foreign Legion as the only woman ever to do so and served in an administrative role in Vietnam.
This is a quite amazing story of a woman who sought to have adventures and to be in the midst of the action. The author was part of battles, retreats and a siege in the desert and she tells the story of those and the soldiers who fought. Her position was obviously unusual and her affaire with the General, who later became a Minister in De Gaulle’s post-war government, kept her safe and protected in many difficult situations. This book is not just about her military adventures, however, but about her love for the General and how she coped with life both with and without him.
This is a memoir to keep so I shall, I hope, find room for it on my bookshelf of biographies.
Anne Is Reading 