Gardens of Stone My Boyhood in the F..., Stephen Grady
Gardens of Stone My Boyhood in the F..., Stephen Grady
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Gardens of Stone: My Boyhood in the French Resistance
My Boyhood in the French Resistance

Author: Stephen Grady, Michael Wright

Narrator: Gordon Griffin, Luke Thompson

Unabridged: 12 hr 16 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 02/14/2013

Synopsis

An extraordinary wartime memoir, combining the best kind of adventure story with a coming of age testimony of unforgettable resonance and poignancy.

September 2011, Halkidiki, Northern Greece.
A solitary 86 year-old man gazes across an Aegean headland, knowing that he must finally confront his past. He begins to write...

September 1939, Nieppe, Northern France.
14 year-old Stephen is living with his family, 25 kilometres from Ypres. His French mother battles with her encroaching blindness. Failing to escape the advancing German army, his English father can no longer look after the war graves that cast so heartbreaking a shadow across the region.

Stephen and his friend Marcel embark upon their great adventure: collecting souvenirs from strafed convoys and crashed Messerschmitts. But their world turns dark when arrested and imprisoned for sabotage and threatened with deportation or the firing squad. Upon his release, and still only 16, Stephen is recruited by the French Resistance. Growing up under the threat of imminent betrayal, he learns the arts of clandestine warfare, and - in a moment that haunts him still - how to kill...

Such was the impact of Stephen Grady's work for the French Resistance, (especially during the countdown to D-Day and its bloody aftermath) that he was awarded the Croix de Guerre and the American Medal of Freedom.

(P)2013 Hodder & Stoughton

About Stephen Grady

Stephen Grady OBE was born in Northern France in 1925, the son of an English father who was a head gardener in the Imperial War Graves Commission. In 1941 he joined the French Resistance, carrying out missions for which he was awarded the French Croix de Guerre with Silver Star, the American Medal of Freedom, and a British mention in Dispatches. After the liberation of France, he joined the British Army and served as a Lieutenant with the Intelligence Corps, before returning to a long career in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, for which he eventually became director of the France area. He now lives alone in Greece.Stephen Grady OBE was born in Northern France in 1925, the son of an English father who was a head gardener in the Imperial War Graves Commission. In 1941 he joined the French Resistance, carrying out missions for which he was awarded the French Croix de Guerre with Silver Star, the American Medal of Freedom, and a British mention in Dispatches. After the liberation of France, he joined the British Army and served as a Lieutenant with the Intelligence Corps, before returning to a long career in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, for which he eventually became director of the France area. He now lives alone in Greece.Michael Wright, who worked with Stephen Grady on Gardens of Stone, is an English writer based in rural France. He has published two bestselling books about his life-changing experiences there: C'est la Folie and Je t'aime à La Folie.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Karen

This is a page-turning World War II memoir that tells the story of a teenage boy fighting for the French Resistance. Stephen Grady was only 14 years old when the German army began advancing into Northern France. His father was English and tended the war graves, his mother was French and battling bli......more

Goodreads review by Reijo

Now that Stephen Grady will be 90 years old on the 30th of May 2015, I would like to thank him for his book, which I had the pleasure of receiving from him personally at his home in Greece just one month ago. (I got a tip to go to see him from a friend.) The book is a rare gem and reflects well the......more

Goodreads review by Craig

As a researcher and writer of WWII resistance novels, over the years I have come across many incredible stories. I first heard Stephen's story in a TV interview he did some years back for a documentary. I was struck by his recollections of the recklessness of youth in very dangerous times. His story......more

Goodreads review by Rosie

This is one excellent book. Prepare now for a life-changing read. It’s a memoir of a humble, heroic and, I guess, self-effacing man who was part of the French Resistance when he was still in his teens. (Anyone who could be part of the Resistance in France during World War II was truly brave.) I happe......more

Quotes

Remarkable...extraordinary. Libby Purves, BBC Radio 4 Midweek

A heart breaking, beautifully crafted true story of courage, loss, loneliness and the reality of what it meant to fight the Occupation. Kate Mosse, author of CITADEL

This is not only a remarkable coming of age story, it is also one of the finest memoirs of the war I have ever read. Stephen Grady brilliantly conveys the journey from childhood adventure to a far more sinister world where the threat of betrayal and torture lurks at every turn. At turns profoundly moving and grippingly tense, this book, like The Railway Man and First Light before it, deserves to become a classic. James Holland, author of HELLFIRE

An extraordinary memoir of the journey to manhood unfolding against a backdrop of terror, destruction and stark tragedy. At times charmingly whimsical, at times almost unbearably poignant, Gardens of Stone is the best book I have read about the struggle of seventy years ago - and its haunting legacy - bar none. Colonel Tim Collins

His heroism is of the very real kind...vividly recreates , in a simple and unadorned style, life under Nazi occupation. Sunday Times

Stephen Grady has made his authorial debut at the age of 87 with a book that is thrilling, honest, funny and sad. Spectator

British schoolboys doubtless have quite different fantasies nowadays, but for much of the last century most of them liked to imagine themselves leading their friends in guerrilla warfare against the German army. Stephen Grady is probably unique in having lived the fantasy, an experience he recalls in Gardens of Stone. Now he has made his authorial debut at the age of 87 with a book that is thrilling, honest, funny and sad. Spectator

This terrifying and utterly gripping account. Daily Mail

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