– reviewed by Virginia Watson-Rouslin –
The world of spies is generally considered male territory, and only recently have the stories of the surprising number of women who braved torture and death on behalf of their governments in World War II begun to be told. At the head of the class stands Christine Granville, said to be Churchill’s favourite spy, the model for Ian Fleming’s “Vesper Lynd” in Casino Royale and Britain’s longest-serving female spy. In Clare Mulley’s well-documented and superbly written The Spy Who Loved, we finally get the story of this amazing woman who played a significant role in Britain’s wartime espionage work. The average lifespan of a female agent could be months; Christine managed to live through the war, only to be murdered by a jealous lover in a London hotel room in 1952.
Born in Poland to a wealthy Jewish mother and an impoverished Polish aristocrat, Krystyna Skarbek enjoyed a childhood of freedom and adventure, one that taught her self-reliance and a deep love for her country. She was also beautiful – the winner of a local beauty contest – and left a trail of broken-hearted men behind her. After the German invasion of Poland, Granville travelled to England, asking to be hired by the British Secret Intelligence Service. Among some of the “jobs” she did for the British: smuggling guns into Poland and intelligence out. But Granville’s greatest exploits involved her work in France. Near the war’s end, she single-handedly persuaded Polish troops pressed into the German army and in charge of a post in the Alps to throw off their German uniforms and join the Allies. She was paired with Francis Cammaerts, one of the best, in running the Vercours “circuit,” busy blowing up railway lines and sabotaging communications in the lead-up to D Day. After the war, she was dismissed from the British service with one month’s salary.
New Releases – Available at Tanner’s Books:
Bittersweet by Colleen McCullough (fiction)
Table of Less Valued Knights by Marie Phillips (fiction)
Lisette’s List by Susan Vreeland (fiction)
Sweetland by Michael Crummey (fiction)
Tell by Frances Itani (fiction)
Maeve Binchy: The Biography by Piers Dudgeon (non-fiction)
No Hero: The Evolution Of A Navy Seal by Mark Owen (non-fiction)
Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby & the Great Betrayal Ben MacIntyre (non-)
Cardboard Ocean by Mike McCardell (non-fiction)
Mr Hockey: My Story by Gordie Howe (non-fiction)
