A Woman of No Importance by Sonia Purnell

By the time Vichy France fell under occupation, “the limping lady of Lyon” had become the Nazis’ most wanted Allied agent in France. But Hall persevered, helped by her ability to dish out “Homeric bollockings” when required, and plotted prison breakouts, organized resistance activities and re-established a chain of radio operatives throughout the region. It’s a surprise, too, to learn quite how much money was involved in persuading people to fight for their freedom. Other resistance leaders proved intransigent or reckless, fellow operatives were too insecure to take orders from a woman and Benzedrine-enhanced libido resulted in male agents cutting a swath through the female population. Rebooting the entire network, Hall found that not all of her problems originated with the enemy. agents being rounded up by the Vichy police. Having witnessed early gatherings of National Socialists in Vienna, Hall had fewer qualms, and found herself in Vichy-controlled Lyon shortly before careless tradecraft led to local S.O.E.

“Traditionally,” Purnell notes, “British secret services had drawn from a shallow gene of posh boys raised on imperial adventure stories” (much like the British acting profession today), and many new recruits backed away in horror on learning that they were essentially expected to become assassins. But outdated sensitivities came to her aid.

The Special Operations Executive, or S.O.E., had a remit to “set Europe ablaze,” and while Hall seemed an ideal candidate - as a neutral American, she could travel around France quite openly - many barriers remained, not least her sex. And yet the prosthetic replacement she dubbed “Cuthbert” didn’t prevent her from becoming an ambulance driver in France when the war broke out nor slow her down when a chance encounter put her in touch with the man setting up a new British secret service.

A Woman of No Importance by Sonia Purnell