A Foreign Field was published by HarperCollins in 2001. In 1943, four Allied soldiers (two British, one American, one South African) were hidden in the attic of a house in a small village in northern France by a local farmer. For months, the village maintained a conspiracy of silence — the Germans were billeted nearby, collaborators were active, and the penalty for harboring enemy soldiers was death.
Macintyre discovered the story while working as a journalist in Paris and traveled to the village to interview survivors. The book explores not only the heroism of the family who hid the soldiers but also the moral complexity of life under occupation: the mayor who collaborated with the Germans but also turned a blind eye to the hidden soldiers; the villagers who knew but said nothing; the Resistance fighters whose actions endangered everyone.
The book established Macintyre’s method for his later, more famous works: meticulous archival research combined with personal investigation, narrative pace borrowed from fiction, and an interest in the moral ambiguity of wartime choices rather than simple heroes-and-villains framing.
Collecting A Foreign Field
First edition (HarperCollins, London, 2001): Boards with dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition, fine in jacket: $15–$30
- Signed first: $30–$60