The Blue Hour

A novel by Phyllis Bischoff

Available as an e-book from Amazon

The Story

Elizabeth leaves her life of tranquil retirement to revisit Paris, the city where she fell in love just before the outbreak of the Second World War.

Unexpected events and a chance encounter with an old friend mean that she stays longer than planned and discovers some uncomfortable truths about the dark years of the German Occupation and the fate of her fellow students.

Elizabeth learns that after the end of the 'phoney war' in 1940 and the subsequent fall of Paris, resistance to the enemy had slowly gained momentum as France faced defeat. Fear stalked the city as the Germans, tipped off by local collaborators, cracked down with increasing violence on the protesters.

The shocking revelations of betrayal, murder and execution some 40 years in the past, lead Elizabeth to question her own life and marriage.

The Author

Phyllis Bischoff is a teacher of modern languages and lives in rural Kent. She has spent a lot of time in France and her love of the country, and interest in the complexities of the Occupation of Paris inspired her to write The Blue Hour, which is her second novel.

Her first novel, Lilac Time, is the story of an elderly Austrian woman living in England whose suppressed memories of her life in Vienna during the Nazi occupation are shockingly revealed to her family.