Customer Reviews

Spymistress: The Life of Vera Atkins, The Greatest Female Secret Agent of World War II

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The author of Spymistress states that Vera Atkins had "lustrous black hair" whereas in fact she was a blue-eyed blonde, as anyone who ever met her could have told him.
If the author cannot get the colour of his subject's hair right it is hardly surprising that much of the rest of the book turns out to be nonsense too. The fantasies woven here have no interest. The author trivialises a great woman's life story. He does so in the knowledge that the dead cannot answer back.
The true story of Vera Atkins's life is far more compelling than anything in this book. I know this because I spent five years researching her extraordinary story across the world. I interviewed her at length before she died and I had sole access to her archive.
I am writing this review not to promote my own book but to defend Vera's integrity. This false "biography" desecrates the memory of a remarkable woman, misses the real story entirely, and brings the American publishing industry into disrepute. In short, it is a publishing farce.

I had such high hopes for this book but I was entirely disappointed. First, I bought this book on an impulse because the topic and the title appealed to a modern feminist like me. So I bought it... and I tried to read it. I really did. For a whole plane ride back from the Bahamas (almost 8 hours). It was torturous. First, it seems that the author is recounting some childhood story of having met Vera Atkins. He talks about her sex appeal. Huh? I was somewhat baffled by this introduction.

Moving on, the next few chapters all seem to come out of nowhere. The author jumps around without any warning. He rambles and lists a litany of "facts" about Vera's life. It's as good as a second grader recounting a day in life by simply listing all that had happened. What's the point? Tell me something useful. Tell me something that helps me understand Vera as a person. Tell me about her inner conflicts. Tell me about the events that had taken place and the people who influenced her. Don't tell me what she had for breakfast!!!

So at the end of my 8 hour flight, I gave up. I got through first 6 chapters. Yes, I cannot comment on the book's entirety. But I've seen enough.

As a side note, the writing skills of the author is questionable. Often there are awkwardly worded sentences. The overall impression is choppy and dissonant. So on top of the dismal content, you cannot get any pleasure in reading for the sake of reading. If you ask me, I say take a pass.

Seldom would I give a book so poorly written four stars, or think about giving it five stars, but this is not a book one would read for its prose or even for a coherent narrative. (The author's prose while intelligible is not at all graceful and his account sometimes jumps around in ways that are hard to follow or leave unresolved issues recently raised.) Nevertheless, the story is fascinating, and reveals facts likely to be little known to all but WW II history buffs. I certainly learned much I knew little about (e.g. The number of Brits and others who were parachuted or otherwise landed in France to work with the French resistance to sabotage Nazi war efforts, the number of heroic women who risked and sometimes lost their lives as sabateurs and spies, and the degree of competition within the British military and spy bureaucracies that not only hampered some counter-nazi efforts but also had deadly consequence for secret agents and their sources within the German government) Much of the book seems to draw on recently declassified documents so aspects of what is revealed may be new even to those who at one time but not recently thought they knew most of what occurred in England's clandestine war efforts. One caveat - a one star review claims much of the book isn't worth reading because it is factually untrue and is a misleading history of the book's central character, even to the point of getting her hair color wrong. I cannot adjudicate this claim, but it does matter. It also seems to me that in instances where this book's narrative disagrees with that of Helms, the author of the one star review who has also written about Vera Adlins (Could he be related to the former CIA head?) there is a possibility that much in each version is correct and that certain disagreements accurately reflect conflicting memories and source, including perhaps differing memories by the same sources since memories are constructed and can change over time.

This is an excellent book if you enjoy reading about WWII and the French Resistance, agents and dangers, etc. Book delivered promptly and in excellent condition. Thanks.

A facinating, little-known story about an extraordinary woman who we freemen owe much.You will not regret this chance to peer into her secret life during WWII.

This book was interesting, heartbreaking and enlightening. It tells the stories of the many men and women who sacrificed their lives, and often their public honor, in the secret battle for information and sabotage, helping the allies win in the war with Germany. It tells of them by their connections to Vera Atkins, the woman who recruited many of them and sent them into the secret battle. Vera, a Romanian with a Jewish background, gave up her identity to be able to serve and live in Britain. What was heartbreaking to me, was the hardheartedness of America and Britain to the plight of the Jews of Europe. This shows that their devastation was not why we went to war, and we handed them over to even more destruction when we were so eager to appease Stalin after the war. This truly is a broken world.
Though some of the information was more detailed than I was interested in, I'm sure others who are more knowledgeable about this war would enjoy them. I enjoyed the anecdotes more than the detailed information; some of them were amusing, others horrifying, but all of them were fascinating and my heart went out to those who were brave enough to be involved.

Vera Atkins is a fascinating character and I enjoyed learning about her life. However, the book is very poorly and laboriously written. I had a hard time getting through the book but the subject matter kept me going.

Sometimes the most charming person in the world is the most dangerous. "Spymistress: The Life of Vera Atkins, The Greatest Female Secret Agent of World War II" is a Romanian Jew who served the English during the second World War. Only recently has her exploits been known to the public, declassified after decades of confidentiality and secrecy. Her exploits did a great part for the cause of the Allies, and her story reads just as well as any Bond novel. "Spymistress" is a must read for anyone interested in the history of espionage.