Our first podcast for 2026 is with Jane Rogoyska, the author of Hotel Exile: Paris in the Shadow of War. Divided into three parts, it tells the story of the influx of mostly German refugees into Paris following the rise of the Nazis, and how the Hotel Lutetia, a grand hotel on the Left Bank, became a focus for them in organizing some kind of resistance to the regime at home. After the German Occupation, the same hotel became the headquarters of Military Intelligence, the Abwehr; and then, after the Liberation, the hotel mutated into a reception centre for deportees returning from the concentration camps. The book has received superb reviews across the media and is immensely readable. 

The book is available now at £25 and Jane has kindly signed copies for us. Email, call or order online if you would like a copy. 

Interviewed by Johnny de Falbe 

Edited by Magnus Rena