Seven decades after the end of World War II, the stories of key players in the Allied intelligence services are still coming to light. Virginia Hall, a fearless American who spent much of the war working undercover in France for Britain's Special Operations Executive (SOE), is one of these formerly unsung heroes. Journalist Sonia Purnell (Clementine) tells Hall's story in her fast-paced, meticulously researched (and ironically titled) biography, A Woman of No Importance.
Restless, bold and bored by her mother's social-climbing ambitions, Hall relished horseback riding far more than genteel parties. In her 20s, she spent time in Paris and Vienna, studying languages and absorbing the culture, before working as a clerk for the U.S. State Department. A hunting accident in Turkey left her disabled (she lost part of one leg) but never slowed her down: she went back to work, and later volunteered as an ambulance driver in France. In 1940, Hall was headed home to the U.S. when she was recruited by the fledgling SOE.
Purnell expertly weaves Hall's narrative together with the story of SOE's founding, highlighting its attempts to build a new kind of covert operation (and its mistakes along the way). She traces Hall's trajectory from fresh-faced recruit to battle-hardened, savvy Resistance fighter, and brings her comrades and civilian supporters to life. She follows Hall's movements around occupied France: organizing air drops, setting up Resistance cells, finding safe houses for refugees and radio operators. The woman's bravery and brilliance are on constant display, but Purnell also highlights the quiet heroism of ordinary people who risked their lives daily to fight fascism. She also minces no words about the sexism Hall and other women faced at the State Department and in SOE--both agencies having started as well-heeled boys' clubs. The casual dismissal of Hall's shrewd intelligence plagued her throughout her career, but she remained tenacious and determined to help France gain its freedom.
Although some of Hall's exploits are epic, even cinematic, there's also a lot of nitty-gritty detail: cracking radio codes, planning elaborate prison escapes, agents narrowly avoiding capture (or not). Purnell's narrative moves along at a cracking pace, somehow managing to keep track of a large cast of characters against the ever-changing backdrop of war. (Hall's later years, though they are mentioned, read almost like a coda to her wartime adventures.) Purnell's book is a gripping account of an extraordinary woman, and a celebration of courage, ingenuity and grit. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams
Shelf Talker: Sonia Purnell tells the gripping story of an American spy who became a leader of the French Resistance.