The Resistance Man (Bruno Chief of Police 6)

accurate, thanks to the work of my colleagues at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington DC. Their Cold War research centre has assembled an extraordinary archive of documents and astute analysis which illuminates much of the secret history of modern times. Some of the documents I cite on French dependence on US nuclear technology may be consulted at: www.digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/113232 , www.digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/112388 and www.digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/113238f
    In the last of these selected documents, the transcript at a Pentagon meeting on 5 September 1973, with Defense Secretary James Schlesinger and future national security advisor Brent Scowcroft, Dr Kissinger notes that ‘the real quid pro quo is the basic orientation of French policy’.
    The interpretation of the likely impact of such revelations on French politics is my own invention for fictional purposes.
    The brunochiefofpolice.com website has had several queries about some of the foods mentioned in the Bruno novels. The splendid
Tomme d’Audrix
cheese and the
aillou
are indeed made by my friend Stéphane Bounichou, who can be found in the markets of Le Bugue on Tuesday and Saturday mornings, Le Buisson on Fridays and St Cyprien on Sundays. Mail order is possible in some European countries. He can be reached via: www.facebook.com/pages/Fromagerie-Le-Ptit-Jean-De-Mai/171737676196647?sk=info
    Like Bruno, I am torn between trumpeting the excellence of the wines of Bergerac and particularly of the Pécharmants, and worrying that greater renown might make them too expensive to afford. For the moment, they remain very reasonably priced and details of some of my favourites may be found on Bruno’s website. The magnificent wines of Château de Tire-gand, particularly the
grands millésimes
of 2005 and 2009, can be found at: www.chateau-de-tiregand.com/index1.html
    I am grateful to the Dordogne tourist board for their enthusiastic support for Bruno’s adventures. They are offering to provide by post a book of vouchers for reduced admission tothe Lascaux cave and many other caves, castles, gardens and tourist attractions in the region to any reader who sends their name and address to: [email protected]
    As always, the real heroes of the Bruno books are the astute and kindly people of the Périgord and the wonderful
paysage
and way of life they have crafted over the centuries. It is a privilege to live among them and to share it. Once again I must ask forgiveness from my friend and tennis partner Pierrot, our local policeman whose genial personality and wisdom first inspired the Bruno stories, for covering his placid and law-abiding countryside with fictional corpses.
    Bruno would not be Bruno without Jane and Caroline Wood in Britain and Jonathan Segal in New York, and without Anna von Planta and Ruth Geiger in Zurich. My wife Julia and our daughters Kate and Fanny have always been the first to read each new Bruno and have been as perceptive as they are supportive. The food in the Bruno novels owes just about everything to Julia, Pierrot, Raymond the retired gendarme and my other friends and neighbours. Much of this book has been written with Benson, our basset hound, sitting or more often sleeping at my feet until I take him out for a walk and a
p’tit apéro
with Raymond or the Baron or Joe my neighbour, and often with all three.