A Packhorse Called Rachel

A story of courage, fear and defiance based on the author's own personal experience. A Pack Horse Called Rachel is the remarkable tale of a young woman, half Jewish, caught in the extraordinarily brutal world of France in 1944. Rachel moves through the pages of the book with her faithful dog Nourse, touching lives as her work with the Maquis based in the Auvergne takes her perilously close to danger on a day-to-day basis.The story is based on personal experience, the description of historical events is as true as memory will allow, it is an elegantly written story capturing first hand Kellermann’s painful and lonely life as a resistance fighter within the Maquis, amidst the harsh beauty of the Auvergne. Beset by the freezing cold climate prevailing in winter, the Vichy traitors amongst the normal French population and the hostility of ordinary people afraid for their own lives. Rachel overcomes the initial animosity and mistrust of the lecherous and alcoholic farmer Raboullet on whom she comes to rely; the wrath of the Gestapo, the betrayal of St Pré, a full and passionate love affair, tragic loss and yet she survives.