![]() ![]() (Scout Press, 336 pages, $27.99.)Ī fetching advertisement for a well-paid nanny in a posh, remote home in the Scottish Highlands captures our main character's attention. For her bravery, she was honored by Britain and France, making her the most highly decorated woman and the most decorated spy - man or woman - of World War II. A central element of this story is her love affair with her commanding officer in France named Peter Churchill - no relation to Sir Winston, but Sansom suggested otherwise to her captors, and that ploy helped her and Churchill survive. ![]() But through it all she never cracked, thereby saving the lives of other British agents. Eventually, she was captured, tortured with a red hot iron, had all her toenails pulled out and was sent to a German concentration camp. ![]() Remarkably, she acceded to British recruitment efforts, placed her three girls in a boarding school and joined up with a cell of British agents in the south of France. But she was born and raised in France, so her command of the language made her an ideal candidate as a courier for British spies and saboteurs operating in occupied France. She was living in England and raising three children while her husband was away at war. Her real name was Odette Sansom, and she was about as unlikely a prospect for espionage as you could imagine. When she was inserted into France during World War II, her code name was Lise. ![]()
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