History of the book "L for Love"
 


Andrée Veauvy


Lieutenant Veauvy


The young couple in 1943, before Flying Officer Veauvy
embarks for the
United Kingdom. 		- The ‘L for Love’ book was written by Andrée Veauvy who was married to Captain Veauvy. She was assisted by her second son, Paul Veauvy. During the year 1993 the LFL veteran’s crew met several times at Captain Veauvy’s house and this is how Mrs Veauvy had the idea to write this book. She listened to all the stories and she felt the incredible companionship that this crew had developed and above all their team spirit which was still intact, fifty years later.
Although the book idea was quite tempting, writing it actually proved to be a challenging process! - Nevertheless, during her numerous trips to the Vincennes Archives, near Paris, she collected many documents regarding the mission’s details. These involved hundreds of photocopies and many interviews of the crew in order to ‘reconstruct’ the missions with accuracy. Thanks to a rigorous classification involving lots of computer work, the structure of the LFL book, which does not intend to resemble a novel but strictly an historical and technical account of what happened, was able to come into light.

- Despite her age of 73, the author’s motivation was high and nothing stood in her way whether it was information technology or taking numerous trips, or else the abundant letters exchanged with the French Air Minister or the Royal Air Force. Mrs Veauvy showed an incredible determination in achieving her masterpiece!
- In 1996, following a meticulous three years’ work, her book was finally published. It happened to be slightly romanced at the beginning when she described how she met her husband for the first time. However, when the gist of the book starts, the rigorous account of the mission is well documented and somehow comes to life with photos and actual comments from the LfL crew. The text flows, there is no space for the novel, and this is purely an historical account.
- To finish the book, Paul Veauvy, who has an engineering background, brings his contribution. He allows the aircraft technical data to enrich the historical description. It is as if the aircraft itself was a witness, thanks to Captain Veauvy’s accurate personal note book. It seems planes have always been a passionate conversation topic within their family. -In 2012, Andrée Veauvy passed away, aged 91. Rest in Peace.

- In 2017 Paul cannot find the 1996 hard copy anywhere. The old print system (by films) is obsolete and cannot be printed anymore. Paul decides to gather the left over files and he produces two massive achievements:
- He identifies some printing inaccuracies in the 1996 LFL files and manages to correct them. Thanks to various forums available on the internet he is able to link with ex-service men, and this allows him to gather further technical information about the Halifax bomber, which he uses to enhance the new 2018 LFL version.
- Paul gets in touch with his cousin Franck Veauvy who has been living in Scotland for 30 years and they agree to start a yearlong e-mail exchange, which allows Franck to translate the LFL in English. Paul is in charge of the pagination, printing and editing.
The 2018 LFL English version is proof read by a qualified English teacher and later proof read again by a reading committee from Inverness Royal Academy.
- In 2018, both upgraded versions, English and French, are available to all, thanks to the exclusive financial participation of Paul Veauvy.

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