In 1942, the Gestapo sent out an urgent transmission: "She is the most dangerous of all Allied spies. We must find and destroy her." Their target was Virginia Hall, a Baltimore socialite who talked her way into Special Operations Executive, the spy organization dubbed Winston Churchill's "Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare."
In her new book, A Woman of No Importance, Sonia Purnell provides a close-up view into Hall’s life and exploits. The first Allied woman deployed behind enemy lines, despite her prosthetic leg, Hall helped to light the flame of the French Resistance, revolutionizing secret warfare as we know it. It’s an astounding and inspiring story of heroism, spycraft, resistance, and personal triumph over shocking adversity.
Sonia Purnell is a biographer and journalist who has worked at The Economist, The Telegraph, and The Sunday Times. Her book Clementine: The Life of Mrs. Winston Churchill was chosen as a book of the year by The Telegraph and The Independent, and was a finalist for the Plutarch Award. Her first book, Just Boris, was longlisted for the Orwell prize.
