New and Forthcoming SOE Books
Below are listed some new and future SOE book releases, followed by a few relevant popular books. For the moment, I've left out French and foreign language titles.
I've also compiled other listings in the following categories:
Books with a rosette
are recommended titles.
Section D for Destruction: Forerunner of SOE by Malcolm Atkin (Pen and Sword, January 2018).
SOE In France 1941-1945: An Official Account of the Special Operations Executive's French Circuits (Hardback) by Robert Bourne-Paterson (Frontline Books, September 2016). An contemporary appreciation of F Section's work in France, written by one of its senior officers. This is a reproduction of the report held at the National Archives.
Dadland: A Journey into Uncharted Territory (Hardback) by Keggie Carew (Chatto & Windus, July 2016). Author's exploration of her father Tom Carew's past as a Jedburgh in France and Burma. Winner of the Costa Biography Award. See her article for The Telegraph.
Forgotten Man: The Life and Death of John Lodwick by Geoffrey Elliott (IB Tauris, June 2017). Better known as a postwar novelist, Lodwick had a brief career as a saboteur with SOE's French Section before joining the SBS. Bid The Soldiers Shoot, his wartime memoir, was published by Heinemann in 1958.
The Gestapo's Most Improbable Hostage by Hugh Mallory Falconer (Pen and Sword, May 2018).
SOE in the Low Countries by M.R.D. Foot (Amberley, September 2017). A reprint of Foot's official history first released in 2001.
They Fought Alone: The True Story of the Starr Brothers, British Secret Agents in Nazi-Occupied France by Charles Glass (Penguin, September 2018). A biography of George and John Starr, two F Section agents who, unlike the Newton brothers, headed separate networks in France. Not to be confused with Maurice Buckmaster's book of the same name, published in 1958.
RAF and the SOE: Special Duty Operations in Europe During World War II by John Grehan (Frontline Books, October 2016). Another reprint of an archived document, produced by the Air Historical Branch at the end of the war.
Dead on Time: The Memoir of an SOE and OSS Agent in Occupied France by Jean-Claude Guiet (History Press, March 2016). Posthumously published recollections of the former SOE wireless operator who parachuted with Violette Szabo in 1944. He later worked for the CIA.
Resistance: European Resistance to the Nazis 1940-45 (Dialogue Espionage Classics) by M.R.D. Foot (Biteback, April 2016). Foot's survey of Resistance shows its age but is still a useful reprint. First published in 1975.
Jacques de Guélis SOE’s Genial Giant: His Life, His War & His Untimely End by Delphine Isaaman (Unicorn, June 2018).
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. A veteran of four missions, he would create one of SOE's most successful networks in France.
Violette: The Missions of SOE Agent Violette Szabó GC by Tania Szabó (History Press, November 2018).
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.
Popular SOE Books
Forgotten Voices of the Secret War: An Inside History of Special Operations in the Second World War by Roderick Bailey (Ebury Press, 2008). Compilation of interviews with SOE agents taken from the Imperial War Museum's sound archive.
Spy Princess: The Life of Noor Inayat Khan by Shrabani Basu (History Press, 2006). See also Noor‐un‐nisa Inayat Khan by Jean Overton Fuller.
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.
Beaulieu: The Finishing School for Secret Agents by Cyril Cunningham (Leo Cooper, 2005). First published in 1994.
Heroines of SOE: Britain's secret women in France by Beryl Escott (History Press, October 2012). 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.
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.
The Shetland Bus by David Howarth (Shetland Times, 1998).
Churchill's Secret Warriors: The Explosive True Story of the Special Forces Desperadoes of WWII by Damien Lewis (Quercus, October 2014).
Between Silk and Cyanide: A Codemaker's War 1941‐45 by Leo Marks (History Press, 2007). Bestselling autobiography by SOE's cryptographer. First published by HarperCollins in 1998.
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.
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.
Odette by 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 and reliable of first-hand accounts detailing the work of the Special Duties squadrons, which secretly ferried hundreds of agents in and out of France.
Code Name Verity [Fiction] by Elizabeth Wein (Electric Monkey, February 2015). Paperback, but also available in other formats, including audiobook. First published in 2012.
SOE Manual: How to be an Agent in Occupied Europe (William Collins, November 2014). This is another reproduction work, with selections from SOE's training syllabus covering sabotage, parachute operations, interrogation, fieldcraft etc. For those wanting an unabridged reprint of the course notes, see How to be a Spy.
©2009-16 Nigel Perrin