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A Code Maker's War 1941-45
In 1942, with a black-market chicken under his arm, Leo Marks left his father's famous bookshop, 84 Charing Cross Road, and went to war. He was twenty-two and a cryptopgraher of genius. In Between Silk and Cyanide, his critically acclaimed account of his time in SOE, Marks tells how he revolutionised the code-making techniques of the Allies, trained some of the most famous agents dropped into France including Violette Szabo and 'the White Rabbit', and why he wrote haunting verse including his 'The Life that I have' poem. He reveals for the first time the disastrous dimensions of the code war between SOE and the Germans in Holland; how the Germans were fooled into thinking a Secret Army was operating in the Fatherland itself, and how and why he broke General de Gaulle's secret code. Both thrilling and poignant, Marks's book is truly one of the last great Second World War memoirs.
18th July, 2017 in Biography & Memoir, Military, Women in History
Mata Hari was a Dutch fantasist, an exotic dancer and a grand courtesan. She was shot on 15 October 1917 as a German spy but what was the basis of the case against her? She had once stated, ‘I loved men: a strongly built male brought me to a state of ecstasy.’ And that was the tr…
13th March, 2017 in Biography & Memoir, Military, Women in History
Born in Amiens as Odette Marie Celine Brailly she assumed a variety of names during the course of her war service. Yet she was universally known to both the British and French public in the post-war years simply as Odette. At a time when it was rare for a woman to step out of the…
23rd January, 2017 in Military
Each night the Luftwaffe’s incessant bombs fell on London, from the East End to the junction of Caxton Street and Broadway, only yards from St Ermin’s Hotel. Staff of the various intelligence agencies who occupied the hotel would have been working night shifts to maintain SOE’s p…
10th November, 2016 in Military
The world of espionage is shrouded in mystery, secrecy and lies. Author Tania Szabó breaks down the truth behind espionage and how things have changed in the industry over the years. What is espionage? Espionage (from the French word ‘espion’ meaning ‘spy’) can be defined as…
15th December, 2015 in Biography & Memoir, Military, Women in History
Why, after more than 70 years, are we still so fascinated by the wartime women agents of the Special Operations Executive (SOE)? Probably because they were so exceptional. By convention women were never used in combat roles. Even the doughty ATS women working on anti-aircraft gun…
