A Life in Secrets: Vera Atkins and the Lost Agents of SOE (Paperback)

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• This item: A Life in Secrets: Vera Atkins and the Lost Agents of SOE by Sarah Helm

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• Violette Szabo: The Life That I Have by Susan Ottaway

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• Spy Princess: The Life of Noor Inayat Khan by Shrabani Basu

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Violette Szabo: The Life That I Have by Susan Ottaway 4.0 out of 5 stars (4)  £9.09

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Secret War Heroes: The Men of Special Operations Executive by Marcus Binney 4.5 out of 5 stars (2)  £6.99

Christine: SOE Agent and Churchill's Favourite Spy: A Search for Christine Granville by Madeleine Masson 5.0 out of 5 stars (1)  £6.99

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Review
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' Paul Laity, NEW STATESMAN 'Fascinating account of the life of Vera Atkins' SUNDAY EXPRESS 'Sarah Helm reveals a woman whose aloofness obscured an exotic hidden past' MAIL ON SUNDAY 'Helm discovers Atkins' own dark secrets. The strength of Helm's biography is her refusal to portray Atkins as hero or victim. She emerges as a woman of contradictions, shaped by the vagaries of history. Many former colleagues describe her as cold and distant, while others see her as a great unsung heroine' INDEPENDENT 'Original and intriguing . . . The core of this compelling book is Vera Atkins' quest to unravel the fates of the missing agents. The interweaving of Sarah helm's own search for her subject alongside that of Vera's quest for the agents turns this into a brilliantly conceived and skilfully executed detective story. It takes the author from dusty files in English garden sheds, through hair-raising taxi rides at night across the frontier into Ukraine, and over the Atlantic to a lakeside house in Quebec. Vera, who died in 2000, had tried hard to cover her tracks. But Helm, a dogged journalist by profession, has proven too good for her . . . a riveting story that is both serious and moving. If there's one big book you decide to read this summer, let this be it' SCOTTISH HERALD 'This is a gripping concentricity of stories, well told with abundant detail, at a cracking pace' THE TABLET 'A thorough and fascinating reconstruction of a tragedy that encompassed treachery, naivety, inter-service rivalry and, everywhere, bravery' ECONOMIST 'The remarkable work by Sarah Helm on the female agents betrayed to the Gestapo tells of the courage of women who served their country and the cause of freedom, and the blunder after blunder of the men safe in London who sent them to a foul death. Sebastian Faulks, Piers Paul Read and Laurent Joffrin have written novels about women spies in wartime France but the facts are stronger than the fiction. Yet the cleverness of Helm's book, which reads as a thriller - so eager is the reader to know what happened next, is that she shows how little we really know despite all the books and films about SOE . . . the story of Atkins' life remains extraordinary' FINANCIAL TIMES MAGAZINE 'The story [Helm] unfolds here - with talent and lucidity - is genuinely thrilling' OBSERVER 'Outstanding and meticulously researched' SUNDAY TIMES 'Helm searches for Atkins as Atkins searched for her agents. The result is absorbing, remarkable for Helm's perseverance and for her dispassionate prose. She proves as obsessive about uncovering the truth as Atkins was about hiding it' THE TIMES 'A superb book... Helm gets as close to this secretive and cold woman as we are likely to get. Along the way, she sheds a harsh and revealing light on the still murky untold story of Britain's secret war.' LITERARY REVIEW 'In Sarah Helm's book Vera Atkins has received the biography she deserved.' CONTEMPORARY REVIEW 'A formidably able book . . . lucidly written, and a solid contribution to twentieth-century history' M R D Foot, THE SPECTATOR

MAIL ON SUNDAY
‘Sarah Helm reveals a woman whose aloofness obscured an exotic hidden past’

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14 Reviews 5 star:  (8) 4 star:  (3) 3 star:  (2) 2 star:  (1) 1 star:    (0)           Average Customer Review 4.3 out of 5 stars (14 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews   23 of 23 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars Unlocking the Hidden Doors of the Past, 30 Dec 2006 By  F. S. L'hoir (Irvine, CA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)       In "A Life in Secrets," Sarah Helm tells the riveting story of the courageous men and women of the SOE, the Special Operations Executive, who, during World War II, were parachuted into France, and thence into the arms of the Gestapo. The author also delves into the life of the woman who sent them there, the enigmatic Vera Atkins, who, as a perfect spy, covered her traces so expertly--and so completely--that the biographer has been left with more questions than there are answers. Ms. Helm nevertheless engages the reader from the very first page, beginning with the recruitment and subsequent departure of the seventeen women and seventeen men who were to serve as organizers, couriers, and wireless transmitter operators of resistance circuits in Nazi-occupied France. After stretching the tension to the breaking point, she breaks that narrative thread and weaves in the story of Vera Atkins, who, even though she was a Romanian subject (and thus technically an enemy alien) at the beginning of the war, nevertheless, became a major protagonist in the SOE during the course of the conflict (She was naturalized as a British subject in 1944.). By continually alternating the topic between the question of the fate of the agents and the account of the formidable woman who persistently searched for them in bombed-out Germany after the war, Ms. Helm captivates the reader--who must relentlessly follow the increasingly horrific narrative, through the Ravensbrueck, Dachau, and Natzweiler concentration camps--from the first page to the last. One of the implicit questions the book asks is how, when MI5 was running their deucedly clever and successful "double-cross" system, in which they "turned" numerous Nazi agents parachuted into Britain into double agents, playing the "wireless game" (successfully transmitting disinformation back to the Abwehr), SOE could not catch on to the fact that its own agents had been captured, and that the messages being transmitted back to England were bogus and run by the Gestapo. It seems to be another classic case of the left hand of one agency not knowing what the right hand of the other agency was doing! Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   30 of 31 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars a tale of courage and chilling horror, 19 Jul 2005 By  Stephen Donnison - See all my reviews This review is from: A Life in Secrets: The Story of Vera Atkins and the Lost Agents of SOE (Hardcover) 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 Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   9 of 9 people found the following review helpful: 4.0 out of 5 stars Vera and SOE, the real SOE story, 28 Nov 2006 By  Ms. Vanessa Wagstaff "www.vanessawagstaff.co.uk" (UK) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)    This is a marvellous book, but I will agree that because of the investigative style of uncovering the real life of Vera sometimes it can become muddling as more accurate evident comes to light to the author. Nevertheless, it is a grim account of some of SOE's biggest achievements and blunders. I wanted to scream with anger at the stupidity of Buckmaster ignoring coded messages which had many mistakes in them which signalled the agent's capture. These were ignored and Buckmaster and co carried on sending agents out and replying to the German's telling them of their plans and even asking the German's why their security code checks were not in place!! Of the few agents that survived they were furious at this after all the details of codes the agent required to use should they be captured, all these precautions were ignored. Vera was a remarkable person, the ultimate secret being her Jewish background. Certainly worth reading but some of the grim details of agents deaths let alone some of the SS attitudes can be hard to take in. Read it all the same. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this) Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review › See all 14 customer reviews...		Ad feedback   Most Recent Customer Reviews 5.0 out of 5 stars What have we become This book is the most disturbing I have ever read, in the sense that every page leaves you wondering what has gone wrong with the world we now live in! Read more Published 5 months ago by Mr. Paul B. White 2.0 out of 5 stars Read other SOE books I have read a lot SOE material and this seemed very smug and almost pretentious. I agree that the information about the agents suffering gripping and well researched (but there... Read more Published 6 months ago by S. Ricks 3.0 out of 5 stars A good read Don't get me wrong,the average rating for this book doesn't mean its not worth a read. I did know a little about the SOE but nothing of this detail. Read more Published 7 months ago by E. H. 5.0 out of 5 stars A riveting read at many levels This is in all senses a fascinating book. So rare to read a factual acccount of the war written by a woman, about women. Read more Published 20 months ago by Graham Short 5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, unbiased and exceptionally well researched 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... Read more Published 22 months ago by weatherwitch 5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating account of SOE 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... Read more Published 23 months ago by Ms. H. Browne 3.0 out of 5 stars Well researched book I bought this book having been interested in SOE. I found it hard to get into but found the book interesting but it is not the best book on SOE that I have ever read! Published on 25 Nov 2006 by Lisa 5.0 out of 5 stars Biography reads like a thriller Sarah Helm is a top notch investigative journalist who has gone to extraordinary lengths to bring to the public eye a story you just couldn't make up..... Read more Published on 1 Sep 2006 by David W. Barker 4.0 out of 5 stars A Tale of Courage I agree with a previous reviewer that Vera Atkins was rather an uninteresting and an unlikeable figure. Read more Published on 25 Aug 2006 by N. C. Cox 4.0 out of 5 stars Good old British amateurism The book certainly highlighted for me what an amateurish organisation the SOE actually was. Heroic yes, but equally foolhardly. Read more Published on 17 Aug 2005 by Gary J. Clark Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews › See all 14 customer reviews...

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