Vive la Résistance!

Wherever fascism has taken root, it has met with resistance. What drives people to such extraordinary courage?

Fergus Butler-Gallie explores the lives of fifteen clergymen and women who fought fascism through acts of inventive heroism; whoever said that Christians had to be meek and mild hadn’t met Father Kir – parish priest, French resistance hero and inventor of Kir Royale.

Caroline Moorhead tells the story of four courageous women – Ada, Frida, Silvia and Bianca – who helped form the Italian Resistance to Mussolini and the Nazis. They were not alone; thousands of people throughout occupied Italy rose up and fought to liberate their country. Ada’s house deep in the mountains became a meeting place and refuge for many of them as they brought about the death rattle of Mussolini’s two decades of Fascist rule with its greed, corruption and antisemitism.

Anne Sebba is a biographer, lecturer, radio presenter and former Reuters’ foreign correspondent. She has written nine critically acclaimed books, most recently Les Parisiennes.