A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II

Having read a number of books on the history of espionage, and espionage in the Second World War in particular, I can say that this may be the most interesting and illuminating account of operations in Occupied and Vichy France ever written in English. I would say that it reads like a novel, except no, it reads much better than a novel.

Also a very important corrective to the lack of appreciation of female intelligence operatives during the Second World War. It is not really surprising, but nevertheless infuriating, to see how badly female agents were treated by the men in charge of Allied intelligence operations. Eventually, after her skill and heroism became so evident, SOE and OSS, and the French, did come around to recognizing Virginia Halls contribution. But I have to suspect that there were many other women, making great sacrifices, who were never recognized. (And then there was the shameful treatment of Josephine Baker, who was recognized by the French, but ignored by her own country because of racism as well as sexism.) A Woman of No Importance is straight history, and no feminist rant. But in the course of telling this story, Sonia Purnell has made a real contribution to feminist history.

The older I get, the more I realize that the events in my earlier years that I thought were the absolute worst turned out to be the mold for the best. Now in my seventh decade (did I just write that?), I reflect more and more…

This biography of Virginia Hall takes the reader along with her through both the good and bad times in her life. Her personal determination coupled with her courage comes to life on these pages. The text has been well-researched ….despite an overabundance of missing documents. There were fires, files not in the correct place and who knows what else occurred, so this author has truly done an excellent job.

Personally I feel that Virginia Hall acquired her analytical skills at an early age. She also had an inherent grasp of human nature which enabled her to recruit others. Her personal flaws and fears assisted her in her acute perception of enemies. And, these enemies were many and over a a period of time.

I did wonder throughout the biography, what motivated this lady to keep going despite all odds. Despite her physical pain and depression, she kept going. Her personal despair was always there but she ‘soldiered’ on to become one of the greatest female spies during WW II. I believe she was searching for the personal peace that we all yearn for in our lives.

This is a thrilling, exciting and, at times over-powering biography of this lady. Excellent descriptions, vivid imagery coupled with clear and concise writing make this one a 5 star plus biography for me.

Excellent, truly excellent read for me.

Most highly recommended.

Up front- Virginia Hall is one of my personal heroes. She’s not widely known, which is appalling because she was incredibly brave and devoted to mission. Hall was not really a socialite (although she was from a wealthy family). Service over self was a theme throughout her life and it’s a message that’s often lost these days. How she managed to create and run a network in France, escape the Nazis, and then go BACK- amazing. I wish that fans of historical fiction set in this same period would pick up this non-fiction volume because the true story is just so terrific. Purnell has done an excellent job of mining the unclassified materials for this biography; I was impressed. Thanks to Edelweiss for the ARC. This is inspirational and deserving of a wide audience.

Gonna keep this short since I’m tired. This was one of those books that was hard to put down. It is too bad that Virginia Hall never left her memories of her service in WW2 for history. But Sonia Purnell wove the surviving threads of her story together in a way that I can only imagine is the next closest thing. Considering the difficulty of bringing this story out of the shadows, after many of it’s key actors have left us, and old records lost or dispersed to various places, it must have been a huge a task to create this book. There is almost certainly parts of Virginia Hall’s story that are still missing, and may never be known, though it did not feel like anything was missed while I was reading the book. It is an incredible story.

This non-fiction story of an American working for the British SOE (prior to U.S.’s OSS/CIA) in occupied France during World War II is fraught with suspense. The author rivets my attention. She describes how some of the people survived the war by wits, intuition and caution. Those who failed to attend to details walked into traps set by the Vichy regime, often more vicious that the Gestapo early in the war. I hope this becomes a movie, but I don’t know I could stand the auditory-visual intensity. I will get her book on Clementine Churchill next. Well done!

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