Mission France: The true history of the women of SOE

by Kate Vigurs

The full story of the 39 female SOE agents who went undercover in France. Formed in 1940, Special Operations Executive was to coordinate Resistance work overseas. The organisation’s F section sent more than four hundred agents into France, 39 of whom were women. But while some are widely known—violette Szabo, Odette Sansom, Noor Inayat Khan—others have had their stories largely overlooked – their stories can now be told.

• Published by Yale University Press at £20, ISBN 9780300208573 RB