During wartime, Winston Churchill once noted, the exploits of intelligence agents in the field are "equal to the most fantastic inventions of romance and melodrama." Clare Mulley uses Churchill's words as an epigraph to The Spy Who Loved, a biography of Christine Granville that brims with scenes of danger, intrigue and romance.
Born Krystyna Skarbek to a Polish count and his Jewish wife, Granville enjoyed a privileged childhood, marrying young but quickly divorcing her first husband. After Hitler's invasion of Poland in 1939, she volunteered for the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), becoming the first female British agent in the field. Beautiful, quick-witted and fearless, Granville spent the war pinwheeling around Europe and North Africa, collecting vital intelligence as easily as she collected lovers, never settling in one place or in one relationship for long.
Through extensive research, Mulley (The Woman Who Saved the Children) pieces together the story of Granville's exploits and her complicated web of relationships with fellow agents--most of them men, many frustrated expats like herself. Mulley's portrayal of the personal and political conflicts between the various Allied intelligence services mirrors the constantly shifting landscape of international relations during the war. She pays particular attention to the Allies' continuing betrayal of Poland, which left both Granville and her country penniless and stranded after the victory in Europe.
Attractive but enigmatic, Granville remained elusive even to those who loved her best. Mulley's account captures the courage and the complexities of this extraordinary woman.
--Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams