War isn’t so bad, thinks 16-year-old Paul Hansen, hero of Robert Rigby's The Eagle Trail, until that unforgettable moment when his father screams “Get away, Paul — Run! Run!” followed by a blast from a German sub-machine gun.

Before he can reach his dad’s lifeless body, Jos Theys, his father’s closest friend, pulls him away and together they run.

Jos tells Paul that his parents were in the Resistance. His father is responsible for overseeing the defences and military installations of the docks and harbours in Europe, including those in Germany, and was planning to give this information to the British when he was betrayed. With his mother held by the Germans, Paul must flee Nazi-occupied Antwerp for England and safety.

So begins his spine-tingling journey from Belgium through France to the small border town of Lavelanet.

Helped by a band of brave resistance fighters risking their lives he must adopt a new name and try to put the loss of his parents at the back of his mind. But who can he trust?

He sets off on a tar-black barge captained by bulky Albert and his huge cat Baron who hide him from the eyes of a German officer; a hair-raising trip in a Bugatti type 35 car is next, then on an ancient farm truck, a bicycle ride through Reims on to a steam train, a hard trek on foot to the border between Occupied France and the Free Zone, a hay wagon, another train and finally Lavelanet.

Here he is welcomed into the home of the Mazet family where he gets to know Josette the young daughter. As her parents and colleagues make plans for him to cross the Pyrenees into Spain over the treacherous Eagle Trail, Josette longs to find out more about the Resistance against the wishes of her parents. The more she becomes involved, the more she fears a traitor among them. Could it be her own beloved father? To whom can she turn?

Robert Rigby, who lives in Oxford, recently adapted Alan Sillitoe’s Saturday Night And Sunday Morning for BBC Radio 4 and is presently working on The Changing Role Of Women, a play celebrating the centenary of Headington School. His series Boy Soldier, co-written with Andy McNab, has sold more than 500,000 copies round the world; the sequel planned in 2015 is good news indeed.