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Saluting Maurice Druon, French Resistance hero and defender of language

The strains of the French Resistance anthem filled the air yesterday as the country paid tribute to its author, Maurice Druon, a Second World War hero, writer and Anglophile who became the defender-in-chief of the French language.

Mr Druon, who broadcast to France from wartime London, died on Tuesday just short of his 91st birthday.

President Sarkozy, whose colloqial French appalled Mr Druon, paid tribute to him as “a great writer, Resistance fighter, political figure, wordsmith and a great spirit”.

Read entire article at Times (UK)