Once rumored to have been the inspiration for Ian Fleming’s Miss Moneypenny, Vera Atkins climbed her way to the top in the Special Operations Executive, or SOE: Britain’s secret service created to help build up, organize, and arm the resistance in the Nazi-occupied countries. Throughout the war, Atkins recruited, trained, and mentored the agents for the SOE’s French Section, which sent more than four hundred young men and women into occupied France—at least one hundred of whom never returned and were reported “Missing Presumed Dead” after the war. Twelve of these were women and among Atkins’s most cherished spies. When the war ended in 1945, she made it her personal mission to find out what happened to them and the other agents lost behind enemy lines, tracing rigorously their horrific final journeys. But as the woman who carried out this astonishing search appeared quintessentially English, Atkins was nothing of the sort. As we follow her through the devastation of postwar Germany, we learn Atkins herself covered her life in mystery so that even her closest family knew almost nothing of her past.
In A Life in Secrets Sarah Helm has stripped away Vera Atkins’s many veils. Drawing on recently released sixty-year-old government files and her unprecedented access to the private papers of the Atkins family, Helm vividly reconstructs a complex and extraordinary life.
A Life in Secrets: Vera Atkins and the Lost Agents of SOE
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It is a testament to Helm's detective skills that she has marshalled evidence to refute the various suppositions about Atkins, presenting a truth more surprising and more compelling than the numerous fictions constructed about this dedicated, if flawed, intelligence officer (WATERSTONE’S BOOKS QUARTERLY )
What makes the book as fascinating as the best of thrillers is that at every stage we know as much as she does, tracking Vera down clue by clue, contact by contact . . . It makes compulsive reading (Peter Lewis, DAILY MAIL )
She has now written a truly stunning book - quite the best by a non-veteran of secret warfare . . . If any young reader wonders 'why the bunting and the occasional tear (this VE Day, I recommend this book’ )
John Crossland, SUNDAY TIMES (‘Carefully researched and engaging biography’ ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
What makes the book as fascinating as the best of thrillers is that at every stage we know as much as she does, tracking Vera down clue by clue, contact by contact . . . It makes compulsive reading (Peter Lewis, DAILY MAIL )
She has now written a truly stunning book - quite the best by a non-veteran of secret warfare . . . If any young reader wonders 'why the bunting and the occasional tear (this VE Day, I recommend this book’ )
John Crossland, SUNDAY TIMES (‘Carefully researched and engaging biography’ ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Book Description
The definitive account of an absorbing double mystery: the fates of the missing female SOE agents and the truth about the woman who searched for them
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
46 of 46 people found the following review helpful
By weatherwitch
Format:Paperback
There is so much to say about this book. It seems there have been several conspiricies put forward about Vera Atkins, yet this author has dispelled them with excellent research of her own. Vera Atkins was a major player in the SOE (Special Oerative Executives) F (France) section and undertook her own search to find out what had become of her agents. Her boss Buckmaster made some highly damaging decisions, that condemned the lives of many agents, ignoring key information and clues and giving the Germans information that endangered the lives of his agents. Atkins fought against the War office and government to discover the fate of her own people and for the recognition of the women agents who fought as FANY to be recognised as military with the same rights. This book follows the training of the agents, then Veras lone search through the chaotic Allied occupied German and also to the Russian zone. The fate of the female agents was harrowing, all the more so for how the author feeds us the information, in the same way as Vera found it.
There is no doubt that Vera was a phenomenally brave and strong woman but she was always seen as cold. This book deals with much of that and of Veras secret past. Vera's life was surrounded and shrouded in secrets for almost all of it with good reason and the author reminds us of the social and political world and domestic views then which seriously affected Veras life. Even her own family knew virtually nothing about her past and her war work. Vera was awarded for her work but also blamed for it too. Whilst she went out of her way to trace her agents, she also blocked information that could have greatly helped others in the search for their own loved ones.
Many media reviews for this have called it as reading like a thriller.... Read more ›
There is no doubt that Vera was a phenomenally brave and strong woman but she was always seen as cold. This book deals with much of that and of Veras secret past. Vera's life was surrounded and shrouded in secrets for almost all of it with good reason and the author reminds us of the social and political world and domestic views then which seriously affected Veras life. Even her own family knew virtually nothing about her past and her war work. Vera was awarded for her work but also blamed for it too. Whilst she went out of her way to trace her agents, she also blocked information that could have greatly helped others in the search for their own loved ones.
Many media reviews for this have called it as reading like a thriller.... Read more ›
64 of 65 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
A Life In Secrets is by far the best book ive read this year...and the most chilling. I couldnt put it down .These lost SOE agents especially the female operatives, my godness , I am haunted by their photos. The author has masterfully written how Vera Atkins ,after the war found out what had happened to the missing agents .. Each being murdered in a most barbaric way by the Nazis. But dying with great courage that takes your breath away.
This great book should become a classic. I salute those patriots who served their country well.Awesome
This great book should become a classic. I salute those patriots who served their country well.Awesome
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
By Mabthera
Format:Paperback
Although the book is a biography of Vera Atkins, it focuses - understandably - on her time in F Section of the SOE, and the period she spent tracking down SOE agents who had gone missing or been captured in France post-war. As other reviewers have mentioned, it can be grim reading, but provides an unglamourised glimpse at the running of SOE, and the, sometimes horrendous, mistakes which were made there. It also presents a portrait of a woman who never allowed anyone to really know her, and this leaves both the author and the reader to make guesses about her emotions and her motives. I think this is where the book is at it's weakest, but this isn't the author's fault, and she presents the material available to her in as clear and coherent a manner as possible. I also enjoyed the descriptions of her research when it involved Vera's family and friends, as it provided a more personal, humanising touch which sometimes was lacking in Vera's own relationships with others. I very much enjoyed the book, and found it "un-put-down-able", and would recommend it to anyone who is interested in SOE, the role of women in WW2, or even just wants to read a good biography.
28 of 29 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
My grandfather was Bill Rogers, described in the book as the doyen of the expatriate British community in Bucharest, and I knew Vera very well for 40 years up until her death. I found the book fascinating, particularly on Vera's early life which had been a bit of a mystery to me, but I had to take a lot with a pinch of salt. I tend to agree with reviewer S. Ricks that the author was excessively harsh on Vera and judged her out of context. The Vera I knew had a mind like a steel trap that could pick up any inconsistencies immediately and woe betide anyone who tried to get the better of her. However, she was also an extremely warm and loyal person, as well as vulnerable in certain ways, although it is true that she didn't suffer fools gladly. As S. Ricks states, she was from another era when they believed they had a duty to do whatever they could to protect their way of life from totalitarianism. Of course, Vera felt terrible sending young agents to France and she gave them time to reconsider after explaining to them that there was a strong possibility they would never come back. It was made easy for them to pull out without anyone else ever knowing. On the other hand, we have to take into account that the supply of potential recruits was extremely limited after De Gaulle prevented the British from recruiting French nationals. She talked of her agents often in later years and clearly felt deeply for them as human beings, as well as having a heavy sense of responsibility for those who failed to return which was why she insisted on being allowed to trace them and worked with War Crimes after the war. She once showed me a photograph of the defendants at the war crimes trial sitting like school boys with their headphones on.... Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
A very well written history with a cliff hanging question hanging at...
I learnt so much more about the behind the scenes of SOE. I found it difficult to decide whose fault all the failures were. But I suppose we shall never know.
Published 1 month ago by andrew cuthbert
5.0 out of 5 stars
SUCH A GREAT BOOK
WOW this book is great! So many powerful stories of people who did such wonderful work in WWII. It is so important to look at all areas of history.
Published 1 month ago by Adele McGee
5.0 out of 5 stars
History
They must never be forgotten for their sacrifice for the freedom of this world. I thoroughly recommend this book. Excellent.
Published 1 month ago by John Fletcher
5.0 out of 5 stars
Vera Atkins
I thought it most interesting to learn of Vera Atkins life and dedication to finding out what became of many SOE agents.
Published 3 months ago by Brian Goodyear
5.0 out of 5 stars
women agents
Another book telling of the skills,courage and resourcefulness of women during the war. A must-read!These women have left us with much to be proud of.
Published 5 months ago by crooked spire
4.0 out of 5 stars
Need to refer back all the time to place all the names into some type...
Well written and fascinating. Left a great deal of inquisitiveness which makes one want to delve deeper into the SOE.
Published 5 months ago by thomas
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very interesting account.
Didn't really find out anything new about the SOE, but this book is a good and fair account of the work done by these brave operatives during WW2 in France, and of the calamitous... Read more
Published 6 months ago by phoebe
5.0 out of 5 stars
Enigma
I found this book fascinating to the end. As a lawyer used to weighing up the value of evidence,I find that the author is very fair. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Dm Fletcher
4.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting and frustrating in equal measure
First off, this is certainly a good read, and it is very good to know more about Vera Atkins, the eminince grise of SOE, who has appeared in the margins of the accounts of numerous... Read more
Published 8 months ago by bookelephant
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent read
Sarah Helm's book is one of the best written, thoroughly researched and most informative books on the lives of spies during the Second World War that I have read. Read more
Published 9 months ago by C. Glass
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