The Foundling Boy was written by French author, Michel Deon, back in 1975 and not published in English until 2013 (translated by Julian Evans).

The story, often likened to Henry Fielding's The History of Tom Jones (1749), follows Jean Arnaud from the time he's left as an infant on the doorstep of a gardener and his wife living on a country estate in Normandy, to when Jean's enlists at the outbreak of WWII.

By then, Jean - who has cycled his way around Europe and lived in London - has also found out who his birth mother is.