Writing

André Gillois

Maurice Diamant-Berger (8 February 1902 – 18 June 2004), known as André Gillois, was a French writer, radio pioneer and - during the Second World War - general Charles de Gaulle's spokesman in London. Before the war he worked for the cinema (with René Clair and his brother Henri), as a radio journalist and producer on Le Poste Parisien (with Jean Nohain, meeting Georges Feydeau, Edmond Rostand, Henri Bergson, Georges Courteline, Tristan Bernard or Sacha Guitry), and as an editor with François Bernouard (editing Jules Renard, Courteline, Zola). In 1940, he left Paris and spent two years in the Midi, establishing the first Résistance networks and links with the British. On 31 August 1942, he left from Cannes for Gibraltar at night on the sail-boat Seadog, then went by plane to London, with Nicholas Bodington. From 17 May 1943 to 24 September 1944, he was the daily presenter of Honneur et patrie, the programme for the French resistance, creating le Chant des partisans and announcing every day "Ici Londres, les Français parlent aux Français" ("This is London, the French talk to the French"). On 1 June 1944, he replaced Maurice Schumann as general de Gaulle's spokesman.