CHRISTINE. A Search for Christine Granville O.B.E. G.M.Croix de Guerre
London: Published by Hamish Hamilton, 1975. 8vo.pp.xxxviii + 263. + black and white photographs and index. Original green cloth hardcover with gold gilt lettering in very good if not pristine and protected white pictorial dust wrapper. Very Good. Item #195161
ISBN: 0241892740
Christine Granville, G.M., O.B.E. and Croix de Guerre, one of the most successful women agents of World War II and said to have been Churchill's favourite spy, was murdered, aged 37, in a London hotel in 1952. Her exploits as a British secret agent in Poland, Hungary and France were legendary even in her lifetime. After her death a wall of silence descended on her name. This is because of a panel of Christie's friends and fellow resistance workers have until now obstinately withheld information from more than a dozen would be biographers. Two of the principal members of the 'panel' formed to protect christine's memory from exploitation are major Andrew Kennedy, (Formally Kowersky), christine's closest friend, and christine's commanding officer in France, Major Francis Cammaerts, D.S.O., one of the great figures of the French resistance. Their full cooperation and that of the entire panel, also with many important members of S.O.E., has enabled Madeline Masson to write the full life story of a remarkable woman who repeatedly risked her life to undertake dangerous missions it was to Christine's courage and dedication that two British officers, Francis Cammaerts and Xan Fielding, owed their lives when she organised their escape together with a French officer from a German prison in France. Christine's exploits began after the fall of Poland, when she became a British agent. Operating with Andrew Kennedy from Budapest she organised the escape of British prisoners of war, Polish pilots and other refugees, herself returning frequently to Poland to set up escape routes and to report on German troop movements in her native land after many dramatic adventures she and Kennedy were finally arrested by the Gestapo.
Price: $65.00