The author, formerly a foreign correspondent of the Paris-Soir, served as an official in the French Ministry of Information before the collapse of France. The title is a bit misleading. Actually the book consists of passages taken from the author's diary between October 9, 1939, and June 17, 1940. It throws a great deal of light both on the inside story behind events and on the reaction of the man-in-the-street to those events.