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nermrlib's review against another edition
4.0
It took forever to get this read, but was well worth the time. A fascinating and haunting biography of an interesting life, cloaked in secrecy. The biographer does a superb job in organizing, parsing, and uniting all the stories that make up this book. Kudos to her for unraveling the mystery. This book is well worth reading if you're interested in covert operations in WWII, British history, women's history. It's also one of those books that starts you off on other journeys. I'll now have to read some of the other books mentioned by the author, particularly biographies of Noor Inayat Khan, a wireless operator dropped into France, who was a princess descended from the last Mogul emperor of southern India, whose father was a Sufi mystic and whose mother was a relative of Mary Baker Eddy, founder of the Christian Science church.
juliebcooper's review against another edition
3.0
I wanted to give this 4 stars but after thinking about it a bit more, I can't, simply because the author, Helm, assembled this biography in such a way as to make it confusing at times. Perhaps she needed a better editor. It is a bio of Vera Atkins, and includes fascinating and heartbreaking mini-bios of the female SOE operatives. But the structure of this book left a lot to be desired. Musings and guesses as what people *might* have thought or done was more of a distraction than anything else. Still, I would recommend this if you're interested in WW2 history and in the stories of these brave women. Atkins was certainly a force to be reckoned with.
jdlewis99's review against another edition
5.0
Amazing book - couldn't put it down. It was disturbing and shocking at times, but a fantastic look into the danger of being a spy in WWII.
jmkemp's review against another edition
5.0
A Life in Secrets has been on my shelf for a few years. I've had an interest in SOE since I read Carve Her Name With Pride when I was about 11. Since writing Hunting Nazis I've been collecting more and more material about SOE with the background thought that I might write some more historical fiction with the same characters.
I found A Life in Secrets to be a very thorough piece of investigation by Sarah Helm. It builds on what has come before, especially the work of Jean Overton Fuller and adds to it using primary research with documents, interviews and visits to key locations. Sarah Helm shows the secrets in Vera Atkins life, and the conspiracy theories that they spawned. She then adds her own additional work to debunk some of the conspiracy theories.
The last 100 pages or so of this book draws on the hitherto unpublished official files. It also uses material found in both Vera Atkins archive and those of others involved. I found a lot of pencil underlining and flagging in this section because there was a lot of new material here. The previous part of the book also holds a lot of new material too, although I was mostly interested in the SOE section.
One of the things that did strike me was that there were some very strange things going on with SOE. The Germans had thoroughly penetrated it, which isn't news, but how they did that points closely to another key staff officer and his pre-war contacts with both Henri Dericourt and also Boemelberg who lead the SD in France. How Vera Atkins, or her boss Colonel Buckmaster, didn't realise this remains hard to discern. There's a suggestion, from the postwar trial of Dericourt, that this was a deception operation and that Dericourt passed information to the Germans under orders from London.
There's also the matter of some of Vera's behaviour, which seemed odd to me.
- Vera used to lurk in the comms room waiting to see the messages arrive, which wasn't her job.
- She personally weeded the files before they were released for archiving.
- Vera either interrogated or acted as an interpreter for many key war crimes suspects.
- She rapidly engaged with those telling SOE stories to give them the 'correct' version and cut off anyone that seemed to be trying to tell anything else
Put together these are suspicious, it looks like Vera Atkins was hiding something, although we're unlikely ever to know exactly what. Vera erased anything she didn't like from the official files. She also ensured that war criminals didn't pass on unhelpful information. There are some chinks though, and Sarah Helm has done her best to use those to debunk some of the conspiracy theories. The last couple of chapters deal with these well. What we are left with is a woman who tried her best to save her Jewish family members and to defeat the Nazis. There are a few notable gaps in her history, especially from 1939 until she joined SOE in late 1941. Her naturalisation as a British subject was sponsored by three British officers, all known to have worked for MI6. She also had at least one trip to the continent in late 1940 that wasn't disclosed to the immigration department.
Overall, this is one of the best researched histories of SOE F Section and it's London end. A Life in Secrets would be an excellent place to start if you wanted to understand the Operating Context of F Section, SOE.
I found A Life in Secrets to be a very thorough piece of investigation by Sarah Helm. It builds on what has come before, especially the work of Jean Overton Fuller and adds to it using primary research with documents, interviews and visits to key locations. Sarah Helm shows the secrets in Vera Atkins life, and the conspiracy theories that they spawned. She then adds her own additional work to debunk some of the conspiracy theories.
The last 100 pages or so of this book draws on the hitherto unpublished official files. It also uses material found in both Vera Atkins archive and those of others involved. I found a lot of pencil underlining and flagging in this section because there was a lot of new material here. The previous part of the book also holds a lot of new material too, although I was mostly interested in the SOE section.
One of the things that did strike me was that there were some very strange things going on with SOE. The Germans had thoroughly penetrated it, which isn't news, but how they did that points closely to another key staff officer and his pre-war contacts with both Henri Dericourt and also Boemelberg who lead the SD in France. How Vera Atkins, or her boss Colonel Buckmaster, didn't realise this remains hard to discern. There's a suggestion, from the postwar trial of Dericourt, that this was a deception operation and that Dericourt passed information to the Germans under orders from London.
There's also the matter of some of Vera's behaviour, which seemed odd to me.
- Vera used to lurk in the comms room waiting to see the messages arrive, which wasn't her job.
- She personally weeded the files before they were released for archiving.
- Vera either interrogated or acted as an interpreter for many key war crimes suspects.
- She rapidly engaged with those telling SOE stories to give them the 'correct' version and cut off anyone that seemed to be trying to tell anything else
Put together these are suspicious, it looks like Vera Atkins was hiding something, although we're unlikely ever to know exactly what. Vera erased anything she didn't like from the official files. She also ensured that war criminals didn't pass on unhelpful information. There are some chinks though, and Sarah Helm has done her best to use those to debunk some of the conspiracy theories. The last couple of chapters deal with these well. What we are left with is a woman who tried her best to save her Jewish family members and to defeat the Nazis. There are a few notable gaps in her history, especially from 1939 until she joined SOE in late 1941. Her naturalisation as a British subject was sponsored by three British officers, all known to have worked for MI6. She also had at least one trip to the continent in late 1940 that wasn't disclosed to the immigration department.
Overall, this is one of the best researched histories of SOE F Section and it's London end. A Life in Secrets would be an excellent place to start if you wanted to understand the Operating Context of F Section, SOE.
themeadowofashtrees's review against another edition
4.0
When the book focused on Vera's childhood, I admit it was a little slow, at least it got until the reveal of her tragic great secret. When the book focused on the search for her missing agents, it was absolutely compelling. However, nothing in the book was as viscerally gut-punching as when it focused on just how desperately the SOE tried to pretend that their missions had not completely fallen apart, particular in the Goetz chapter talking about the "Radio Game."
roseybot's review against another edition
5.0
I'm reading for research atm, and picked this up cause it was in Code Name Verity's bibliography. ABSOLUTELY fascinating and well researched. I knew about the French resistance and that the British were involved, but I didn't know how wrong it all went and how there were so many conflicting things going on that "the fog of war" was really real.
Vera Atkins is a very interesting case, and while I think this book might have softened her edges, maybe it didn't. Vera was able to be many, many things, and I'm fascinated by her 'spy-ness'.
Plus, despite it being a history and it taking me a bit to get through it, the book read fast. It was thriller pacing, and I always wanted to be reading more of it, instead of whatever I was supposed to be doing.
Days between when I added this to read and when I read it: 0.
| 1/12/19 1230 ratings (466 5*, 460 4*, 228 3*, 56 2*, 20 1*) ) 170 reviews / added by 5369 people, 3816 to-reads
Vera Atkins is a very interesting case, and while I think this book might have softened her edges, maybe it didn't. Vera was able to be many, many things, and I'm fascinated by her 'spy-ness'.
Plus, despite it being a history and it taking me a bit to get through it, the book read fast. It was thriller pacing, and I always wanted to be reading more of it, instead of whatever I was supposed to be doing.
Days between when I added this to read and when I read it: 0.
| 1/12/19 1230 ratings (466 5*, 460 4*, 228 3*, 56 2*, 20 1*) ) 170 reviews / added by 5369 people, 3816 to-reads
rseykora's review against another edition
There is a lot of information to sort through in this book, but it is well researched and written.
bdw's review against another edition
3.0
I picked up this book with high hopes, but after reading it I didn't enjoy it as much as I expected. I was hoping for an in-depth biography of Vera Atkins, a woman who was very high up in the British spy organization SOE during the second world war. Instead, the book concentrates on the women she sent into France to spy during the war and her search to find them or discover their fates after the war. A good subject, definitely, but the author's failure to flesh out the women and her dry writing style made it hard to get through. Instead of really caring about them, I found myself reminding myself that they were real women and their fates were horrible, and that I *should* plow through the book for that reason alone.
The book did have some good points. The retelling of the women's experiences in concentration camps was horrendous and brutal. The end section discusses more of Vera's motivations and early life. I wonder why this wasn't put in the beginning, to give the reader more of a feel of who the woman was.
The book did have some good points. The retelling of the women's experiences in concentration camps was horrendous and brutal. The end section discusses more of Vera's motivations and early life. I wonder why this wasn't put in the beginning, to give the reader more of a feel of who the woman was.
caitlinxmartin's review against another edition
4.0
I got this book through a Member Giveaway on LibraryThing & I'm so glad I did - I wouldn't have found it otherwise.
This history of Vera Atkins & her search for her missing agents after D-Day was absolutely riveting - not a word I use often. Well-written, cogent, unblinking - this is worth the read.
Vera Atkins was the head of the French Section of the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) during the war. This group recruited, trained, & dropped volunteers behind enemy lines during the war. These volunteers, many of whom were young women, parachuted behind enemy lines & established & operated "circuits" of agents who worked against the Germans in various ways.
After the war a number of these people simply didn't show up again & Ms. Atkins appears to have been one of the only people who felt it was her duty to find what happened to them. Higher ups in the British government at the time did not want, for instance, to release the names of these people to the International Red Cross & other relief agencies working with war refugees as it was felt that to do so would be a) to admit they were spying, & b) that they sent women behind enemy lines.
The story of Ms. Atkins' pursuit of the fates of these people combines with the story of the author's pursuit of the story of Vera Atkins is the focus of the book. There is a lot of information here that is pretty horrifying. Ms. Atkins was finally given permission to research the fate of these people only after survivor stories told of four of the women being put into the crematorium alive.
Equally horrific is the knowledge that the fate of these people was practically guaranteed by the stupidity and short-sightedness of many of the leaders at the SOE who ignored strong evidence that their circuits had been compromised & continued to parachute people into France - often directly into the hands of the Gestapo who were waiting for them.
Ms. Atkins is throughout an enigmatic and mysterious figure who certainly had plenty of reasons to sell the heroism of her group and their agents. The story of these people is, however, full of simple moments of heroism and years that Ms. Atkins spent discovering their fate were well-spent.
This history of Vera Atkins & her search for her missing agents after D-Day was absolutely riveting - not a word I use often. Well-written, cogent, unblinking - this is worth the read.
Vera Atkins was the head of the French Section of the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) during the war. This group recruited, trained, & dropped volunteers behind enemy lines during the war. These volunteers, many of whom were young women, parachuted behind enemy lines & established & operated "circuits" of agents who worked against the Germans in various ways.
After the war a number of these people simply didn't show up again & Ms. Atkins appears to have been one of the only people who felt it was her duty to find what happened to them. Higher ups in the British government at the time did not want, for instance, to release the names of these people to the International Red Cross & other relief agencies working with war refugees as it was felt that to do so would be a) to admit they were spying, & b) that they sent women behind enemy lines.
The story of Ms. Atkins' pursuit of the fates of these people combines with the story of the author's pursuit of the story of Vera Atkins is the focus of the book. There is a lot of information here that is pretty horrifying. Ms. Atkins was finally given permission to research the fate of these people only after survivor stories told of four of the women being put into the crematorium alive.
Equally horrific is the knowledge that the fate of these people was practically guaranteed by the stupidity and short-sightedness of many of the leaders at the SOE who ignored strong evidence that their circuits had been compromised & continued to parachute people into France - often directly into the hands of the Gestapo who were waiting for them.
Ms. Atkins is throughout an enigmatic and mysterious figure who certainly had plenty of reasons to sell the heroism of her group and their agents. The story of these people is, however, full of simple moments of heroism and years that Ms. Atkins spent discovering their fate were well-spent.
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