Spymistress
The True Story of the Greatest Female Secret Agent of World War II
Arcade · Print & ebook · November 1, 2011
New York Times Bestseller!
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- Who it’s for
- A wartime life where intelligence work and women’s often-hidden labor meet.
- Genres
- Women's Lives, Intelligence & Espionage, World War II: European Theater
- Published
- Arcade, November 1, 2011
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For younger readers: Women Heroes of the American Revolution, Tamar, The Light in Hidden Places
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Start with this bookAbout this book
New York Times Bestseller! By the author of A Man Called Intrepid. The story of Vera Atkins, legendary spy and holder of the Legion of Honor She was stunning. She was ruthless. She was brilliant and had a will of iron. Born Vera Maria Rosenberg in Bucharest, she became Vera Atkins. William Stephenson, the spymaster who would later be known as “Intrepid”, recruited her when she was twenty-three.
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Vera spent most of the 1930s running too many dangerous espionage missions to count. When World War II began in 1939, her many skills made her one of the leaders of the Special Operations Executive (SOE), a covert intelligence agency formed by, and reporting to, Winston Churchill. She trained and recruited hundreds of agents, including dozens of women. Their job was to seamlessly penetrate deep behind the enemy lines. As General Dwight D. Eisenhower said, the fantastic exploits and extraordinary courage of the SOE agents and the French Resistance fighters “shortened the war by many months.” They are celebrated, as they should be. But Vera Atkins’s central role was hidden until after she died; Author William Stevenson promised to wait and publish her story posthumously. Now, Vera Atkins can be celebrated and known for the hero she was: the woman whose beauty, intelligence, and unwavering dedication proved key in turning the tide of World War II.
Hidden Intelligence
A wartime life where intelligence work and women’s often-hidden labor meet.
Come here for
- Vera Atkins’s rise through wartime intelligence
- Women agents’ courage and the work behind covert missions
Expect
- A portrait of a formidable figure whose role stayed hidden until after her death
- The SOE’s recruiting and training of agents for work behind enemy lines
Where it sits
| Intelligence & Espionage | 40% |
|---|---|
| World War II: European Theater | 40% |
| Women's Lives | 34% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- World War II History
- 20th-Century America
- 20th-Century History
- Espionage
- Authors
- William Stevenson
- Publisher
- Arcade
- Published
- November 1, 2011
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Reading lane
- World War II History