A Woman of No Importance (Hardback) by Sonia Purnell (Virago, March 2019). A disappointing and sometimes confused account of F Section fixer and later OSS agent, Virginia Hall.
Saboteur: The Secret War of Tony Brooks, SOE's Youngest Agent by Mark Seaman (John Blake, November 2018). The first biography of F Section's Tony Brooks, who was recruited at the age of just 19 and created one of SOE's most successful sabotage networks in France.
Agent Paterson SOE by Ernest Van Maurik (Pen and Sword, May 2018). Written in the 1980s, van Maurik's memoir recalls an unusually varied SOE career. Sadly it glosses over the training of the Czech agents who undertook the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in 1942, but includes some interesting details on his later work, particularly in Switzerland.
Teenage Resistance Fighter by Hubert Verneret (Casemate, Sept 2017). First published in 1971, this journal describes Verneret's experiences of the Fall of France through to joining a maquis group in Burgundy during 1944. It includes recollections of Paul Sarrette and Kenneth Mackenzie, whose Gondolier network provided local SOE support.
Heroines of SOE: Britain's secret women in France by Beryl Escott (History Press, October 2012). Popular collection of short sketches of SOE's female F Section agents, including Nancy Wake, Pearl Witherington, Noor Inayat Khan, Violette Szabo, Mary Herbert and Odette Sansom. Hardback edition was published in 2010.
Code Name Verity [Fiction] by Elizabeth Wein (Electric Monkey, February 2015). This is a ‘young adult’ novel about two women friends who crash in occupied France. One is the pilot, the other a spy. As the book unfolds they each tell their own very different versions of the same story. Available in paperback and other formats including audiobook. First published in 2012.
The White Rabbit by Bruce Marshall (Cassell, 2007). The story of George Cross recipient F.F.E. Yeo-Thomas, written by one of his SOE colleagues. First published by Evans Brothers in 1952. See also Mark Seaman's Bravest of the Brave.
No Cloak, No Dagger by Benjamin Cowburn (Frontline Books, 2009). As the title suggests, Cowburn's account of his four missions to France is honest, modest and convincing. One of the most evocative agent memoirs. First published in 1960.
A Life in Secrets: Vera Atkins and the Lost Agents of SOE by Sarah Helm (Little, Brown, 2005). The story of how Intelligence officer Vera Atkins uncovered the fates of F Section's missing agents, and Helm's investigations into Atkins' own hidden past.
Carve Her Name with Pride by R.J. Minney (Pen and Sword, June 2012). Paperback reprint of biography of celebrated female agent Violette Szabó GC. First published by George Newnes in 1956.
The Life That I Have by Susan Ottaway (Thistle Publishing, August 2014). Reprint of Violette Szabo biography.
Odetteby Jerrard Tickell (Headline Review, 2008). The first biography of agent Odette Sansom, one of the six SOE agents to be awarded the George Cross. Published by Chapman & Hall in 1949.
We Landed by Moonlight: Secret RAF Landings in France 1940‐1944 by Hugh Verity (Crecy Publishing, 1998). First published by Ian Allan in 1978. The most readable of the first-hand accounts detailing the work of the Special Duties squadrons, which secretly ferried hundreds of agents in and out of France.