Above all, this book is about Cordier's growing devotion to Moulin, as he becomes seduced by his mixture of authority, moral integrity, charm, humour and artistic culture. He speculates privately about his real identity: was he a former minister? A diplomat? A painter? (He seemed so interested in art.) Moulin, who had strongly left-wing convictions, continues the processof emancipating Cordier from the values of his youth. During a conversation about the Dreyfus Affair, Cordier was surprised that someone as knowledgeable as Moulin was unaware that Dreyfus had been found guilty. On this occasion, he kept quiet but when Moulin once mentioned the name of Pierre Cot, a former Popular Front minister, Cordier expressed the received wisdom of French conservatives that Cot was a traitor. "People should not talk about things they know nothing about," Moulin rebuked him sharply. End of conversation. Only after the war did Cordier learn that Moulin had been an adviser to Cot in the 1930s and had helped to organise the smuggling of arms to Spanish Republicans.

Cordier's feelings about Moulin came to verge on a kind of passion — even if not a sexual one, since Moulin was old enough to have been his father. Using such language is perfectly appropriate since Cordier today makes no secret of his own homosexuality — even if he was not aware of it at the time. But what of Moulin's feelings towards Cordier? In his voluminous writings on Moulin, Cordier has never once suggested that Moulin might himself have been homosexual, but there is reason to believe that Moulin's sexuality was highly ambiguous. Why indeed did he suddenly take on this intense (and attractive) young man? Although Moulin never let Cordier forget that he was "the boss" (le patron), he also showed him real affection. One day, he gave Cordier a big book on modern art. On another, he tells him: "At the Liberation, I will take you to the Jeu de Paume Museum. It will be our celebration."

Such speculation s are more than of purely anecdotal interest, although in France it is still considered a kind of lèse-Resistance to raise these issues. There is a common trope of writing about collaboration which links it to a homoerotic fascination with German uniforms — Sartre wrote an article linking collaboration to sexual passivity — but the story of homosexuality in the Resistance has never been written. It is very plausible that the strategies of compartmentalisation-the leading of double lives-imposed upon homosexuals in this period might have predisposed them to adapt to Resistance. They did not have families, either. In the documentary The Sorrow and the Pity, the British SOE agent Denis Rake suggests that one of his motivations in undertaking such dangerous work was to prove that as a homosexual he was no less brave than anyone else. Whatever Moulin's feelings for Cordier, it is certain that "the faithful Alain"- as he introduced him to the Resistance leaders-became indispensable to him. At the end of a particularly trying day he would often take Cordier to dinner and launch into long monologue, unburdening his worries and frustrations.

Worries and frustrations Moulin had in ample number. Although Cordier had wanted to "kill boches" — in fact during the whole of the Resistance he never fired a gun in anger — he found himself transported instead, through Moulin, into the most passionate internal political conflicts of the Resistance. Moulin's instructions were to unite the fractious and divided Resistance movements, organise their forces into an underground army and ensure their allegiance to de Gaulle. The Resistance leaders, unhappy to lose their independence, felt they owed de Gaulle nothing — while desperately needing the money he could provide. The stakes in the conflict increased after the Allies invaded French North Africa in November 1942. Because of Roosevelt's hostility to de Gaulle, the Americans sought another French figure to take over this portion of newly-liberated France. More than ever, de Gaulle needed the support of the Resistance leaders to counter Roosevelt's attempt to marginalise him. Moulin became convinced that to widen the basis of de Gaulle's legitimacy it was necessary also to secure the backing of pre-war political leaders by including them in a symbolic National Council of Resistance (CNR). This outraged the Resistance leaders, since they considered the politicians to have been discredited by the defeat of 1940.

Not only did Cordier attend many of the bruising meetings where Moulin was insulted by the Resistance leaders, but he himself was often caught in the crossfire when, during Moulin's absences, he had to hold the fort, liaise with the leaders and dish out funds to them. These prickly figures were not prepared to show him even the minimal deference that they did to Moulin-and were appalled that this "child" should be controlling their funds. "What rank are you?" Frenay contemptuously asked him one day. Cordier provides acid portraits of most of the Resistance chiefs. One particularly telling insight is his observation that the Free French envoys, whatever their ages, almost all used the form "tu" to each other, while to the Resistance leaders it was always "vous". They represented two separate worlds. Towards the end he quotes a comment from Pascal Copeau, one of the few Resistance leaders of whom he has good memories: "Rex [Moulin] has behaved quite unacceptably towards the resisters. You don't understand that because you are not one yourself." Cordier comments: "For me, that was a compliment but I didn't say anything."