Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Author & Illustrator

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, born in Lyon in 1900, was a French writer and aviator. He is best remembered for The Little Prince, and for his books about aviation adventures. In 1921 he began his military service and trained as a pilot, going on to become one of the pioneers of international postal flight. At the outbreak of the Second World War he joined the French Air Force flying reconnaissance missions until the armistice with Germany. Following a spell writing in the United States, he joined the Free French Forces. Then on 31 July 1944, he went on a mission to collect information on German troop movements in the Rhone valley and was never seen again. It was assumed that he was shot down over the Mediterranean. An unidentifiable body wearing French colours was found several days later and buried in Carqueiranne that September.