'Brings alive a glamorous, swashbuckling heroine' – Sunday Times
In June 1952, a woman was murdered by an obsessive colleague in a hotel in South Kensington. Her name was Christine Granville – Churchill's favourite spy. That she died young was perhaps unsurprising. That she had survived the Second World War was remarkable.
The daughter of a feckless Polish aristocrat and his wealthy Jewish wife, Christine fled to Britain on the outbreak of war and persuaded MI6 to make her their first female recruit. She took on mission after mission, skiing into occupied Poland, serving in Egypt and later parachuting into occupied France.
Her quick wit, courage and determination won her release from arrest more than once, and she saved the lives of several fellow officers, including one of her many lovers just hours before he was due to be executed by the Gestapo.
Of more strategic importance, the intelligence she smuggled to Britain, and her service in France, including single-handedly securing the defection of an entire Nazi German garrison, was a significant contribution to the Allied war effort. She was awarded the George Medal, the OBE and the Croix de Guerre.
In The Spy Who Loved, author Clare Mulley has brought Christine vividly to life – a complex, courageous and very effective special agent who deserves to be better remembered.
