Fans of WWII history and women’s history will be riveted. Though the broader contours of Hall’s story will be familiar to those who’ve read about wartime France, Purnell does a fine job of bringing Hall’s story to life. When the SOE refused to send her back to France, she joined the American Office of Strategic Services to facilitate D-Day operations. In late 1942, with her cover blown, Hall escaped France via a dangerous trek across the Pyrenees to Spain. Posing as a newspaper reporter, Hall established a vast underground network that pushed back against the German invaders. All too often since, such women are still celebrated for their courage and beauty rather than for their achievements. An undercover British agent noticed her, and she was hired by the Special Operations Executive to recruit Resistance workers in France. At the time, as the ironic title of this biography suggests, women were effective partly because they were so often considered to be ‘of no importance’. Despite her disability, Hall drove ambulances for the French army after the war started. Two years later, a gunshot wound in a hunting accident cost her half of her left leg. Despite impressive work, she was barred from taking the diplomatic corps entrance exam for unexplained reasons. Virginia Hall, a spirited young woman from a once-wealthy Baltimore family, embarked on an overseas career as a clerk with the State Department in 1931 after finding that women were not welcome in the Foreign Service. Winston Churchill) vividly resurrects an underappreciated hero and delivers an enthralling story of wartime intrigue. British journalist Purnell ( Clementine: The Life of Mrs.
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