Brigitte Friang

Brigitte Friang(1924–2011 [1] ) was a French journalist and writer.

She was born in Paris in 1924 and immediately after leaving school in Paris in 1943 joined the French resistance. Working in the same group as Colonel F. F. E. Yeo-Thomas, she was captured by the Gestapo, shot while trying to escape, then taken to Fresnes Prison and tortured, before being deported to Ravensbrück concentration camp.

After the war, she was liberated and returned to Paris where she worked for four years as a press aide to André Malraux, before becoming a journalist. In 1953, she was sent to French Indochina as a war correspondent. There she undertook parachute training and was dropped, in the opening hours of Operation Castor, into Điện Biên Province, in the north-west corner of Vietnam. She made several combat jumps including one with Lt Col Bigeard's 6th ColonialParatroop Battalion at Tu-Le after which she accompanied the 6th on their retreat to French lines. She survived the war and returned to Paris where she worked as a writer and journalist until her retirement. On June 6, 1954 she appeared as a challenger on the TV panel show "What's My Line?" (the mystery guests for that episode were George Burns and Gracie Allen).

She died 6 March 2011 at the age of 87.

Notes and sources

• Fall, Barnard. 2005. Street Without Joy. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Military. ISBN 978-1-84415-318-3
• Simpson, Howard R. 1994. Dien Bien Phu: The Epic Battle America Forgot. London: Brassey's. ISBN 978-1-57488-024-3
• Windrow, Martin. 2004. The Last Valley. Weidenfeld and Nicolson. ISBN 0-306-81386-6

Published works

• Friang, Brigitte. Trans. Cadel, James. 1958. Parachutes and Petticoats. London: Jarrolds.
• Friang, Brigitte. 1955. Les Fleurs du ciel. Paris: Robert Laffont. ISBN 978-2-221-02334-1
• Friang, Brigitte. 1976. La Mousson de la liberté. Vietnam, du colonialisme au stalinisme. Paris: Plon. ISBN 978-2259001663
• Friang, Brigitte. 1977. Un Autre Malraux. Paris: Plon. ISBN 978-2-259-00274-5
• Friang, Brigitte. 1978. Regarde-toi qui meurs (2 Vols) Paris: France Loisirs. ISBN
• Friang, Brigitte. 2001. Petit tour autour de Malraux. Paris: Félin. ISBN 978-2-86645-413-5