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Between Silk and Cyanide : The Story of SOE's Code War
 
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Between Silk and Cyanide : The Story of SOE's Code War [Hardcover]

Leo Marks (Author)
4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (43 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 614 pages
  • Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd., London; First Edition edition (2 Nov 1998)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0002559447
  • ISBN-13: 978-0002559447
  • Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 15.2 x 5.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 171,438 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Leo Marks
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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review

Twenty-three is awfully young to find yourself with the power of life and death...Leo Marks failed the examination to go and work on codes at Bletchley by being just too good and too much of a smart aleck. Instead, he was imposed on a not entirely willing Special Operations Executive (SOE) to teach coding to agents dropped into Europe and to decode the sometimes indecipherable messages they sent back at great risk to their lives. His speeches to his staff on the mortal danger of slowness or carelessness are classics of guilt-tripping. Absence of mistakes made him suspect that the Germans had captured SOE's Dutch agents--his youth and personality meant that his superiors were slow to believe him. In his spare time, he revolutionized cryptography by inventing one-time-only pads, and wrote poems for agents to use as keys--including the poem associated with Violette Szabo, "Odette".

This is a moving memoir of the agents like Odette and Noor Inayat Khan, whose fates we already know and whom he tried in vain to protect. This is a powerful memoir of war, responsibility and guilt; Marks, hitherto famous as screenwriter on Peeping Tom and son of the 84 Charing Cross Road family, has written a classic. --Roz Kaveney

Review

A highly original view of Britain's World War II Special Operations Executive that managed secret agents: the recollections of its chief cypher officer, a young Jewish civilian who would neither be bound by red tape nor overawed by senior officers, and happened to have almost magical gifts as a coder. He brings out the nastiness as well as the range of the SOE's work; relates the origins of the code poem used by Violette Szabo; and provides a riveting and uncomfortable read. (Kirkus UK)
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
29 of 29 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Every other book written about cryptography has, for me, been overly serious and thus tends to be very hard to become immersed in. This is where Leo Marks' excellent account of his exploits in SOE differs. He tells his amazing, moving and tragic story with a wonderful sense of humour that allows the reader to become involved in the agents he describes. Marks very cleverly observes his colleagues' characters and brings the SOE to life in a way that no other book has managed. I thoroughly recommend this book to anyone, a previous interest is not essential, as I was unable to put it down until the very last page.
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20 of 20 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Leo Marks (son of the owner of 84 Charing Cross Road) set off to war at a tender age clutching a railway ticket and a black market chicken and ended up in less than a year as one of the key people in Britain's war effort. I took this book on holiday and found it almost impossible to put down. It is a masterly summary of the struggle against petty bureaucracy and inter-departmental politics combined with Marks's complete faith in his own not inconsiderable abilities. He briefed allied agents being sent into occupied Europe, invented new codes and ciphers, deduced that the SOE infrastructure in Holland had been blown wide open by the Germans and many other things beside. Marks is a brilliant and truly fascinating individual.
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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful
By Andrew Kerr VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback
I can honestly say that this is the best book I have ever read. Fiction or non-fiction. Leo Marks keeps you on your toes the whole way through - hilarious and touching by turns, the book is absolutely unputdownable.

Combining his own recollections of how he spent most of the war in the SOE, doing things he had specifically been told not to do by his superiors, and the gripping and moving tale of how Captain Yeo-Thomas (better known as The White Rabbit) was caught by the Gestapo, there's more than enough to satisfy any reader.

What more can I say? I've already bought it 7 times more as gifts!

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Most Recent Customer Reviews
We get that you're clever already
Leo Marks, the author has a great tale to tell. The only problem is, Leo Marks. He has some fascinating insight into the workings of the code makers and breakers of The Second... Read more
Published 1 day ago by Smarty Marty Hammo
A flawed edition of a marvellous book
This is one of the most startling, moving, funny and admirable books that I have ever read. It is also one of the worst proof-read. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Ms. J. Jones
Gripping
Right from Chapter One, with its clever, amusing and often sardonic wording, Leo Marks' book grips all the way through. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Mr. R. D. M. Kirby
War Book
This item was bought for someone as a present who is very interested to read about books of this era. A very informative read.
Published 5 months ago by Mr. Raymond Wicks
Compelling...
I loved this. There were times when I was so involved with the people and the danger they were in that I could only read it in coffee shops where I couldn't be spooked. Read more
Published 6 months ago by R. L. Delisser
Between Silk and Cyanide: A Codemaker's War 1941-45
I purchased this book for my husband and it did not disappoint. Leo Marks was an amazing man and the fascinating story of his life and work kept my husband totally enthralled. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Meryl
Agents, codes, and almost certain death in the line of duty
This is the third copy of the book I have purchased. I've given all three away as gifts. Two were new, purchased specifically as gifts for others. Read more
Published 12 months ago by P. P. Wilson
Morse flirts with Bond
Extraordinary gift of Leo Marks to have the mindset of an eccentric codecracker whilst being the young gauche son of the owner of 84 Charing Cross Road. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Theodore
Too many typos
A good, if somewhat partisan, account of Leo Marks's time with SOE. It was slightly spoiled for me by there being just a little too much flippancy and sarcasm about others in SOE... Read more
Published 15 months ago by G. K. Bain
Between Silk and Cyanide: a caveat
This is one of my favourite books, a mixture of humour, ingenuity, triumphs, disasters, portraits of human courage and failings, petty interservice and national rivalries, poetry... Read more
Published 16 months ago by Roger PB
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