Spymistress: The Life of Vera Atkins, The Greatest Female Secret Agent of World War II

by William Stevenson

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Recruited at age 23 by legendary spymaster William StephensonÑknown as ÒIntrepidÓÑVera Atkins undertook countless perilous missions on her own in the 1930s. Her fierce intellect, personal courage, and facility with languages quickly propelled her to the leadership echelon of the Special Operations Executive (SOE), a covert intelligence agency formed by Winston Churchill. During World War II, she became Great BritainÕs spymistress. Her agents penetrated deep behind enemy lines, aided resistance fighters, destroyed vital targets, helped Allied pilots evade capture, and radioed information back to London. They were prepared to die to liberate Europe from the Nazis. Vera Atkins was demobilized in 1947. Author William Stevenson was the only person she trusted to record her lifeÑas he had done for her one-time recruiter, IntrepidÑwith one condition: He would not publish her story until after her death.

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Average Customer Review: 3 out of 5 stars

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5 out of 5 stars

A must read for anyone interested in the history of espionage, 2008-12-12
Sometimes the most charming person in the world is the most dangerous. "Spymistress: The Life of Vera Atkins, The Greatest Female Secret Agent of World War II" is a Romanian Jew who served the English during the second World War. Only recently has her exploits been known to the public, declassified after decades of confidentiality and secrecy. Her exploits did a great part for the cause of the Allies, and her story reads just as well as any Bond novel. "Spymistress" is a must read for anyone interested in the history of espionage.

31 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

1 out of 5 stars

Publishing farce, 2007-09-19
The author of Spymistress states that Vera Atkins had "lustrous black hair" whereas in fact she was a blue-eyed blonde, as anyone who ever met her could have told him.
If the author cannot get the colour of his subject's hair right it is hardly surprising that much of the rest of the book turns out to be nonsense too. The fantasies woven here have no interest. The author trivialises a great woman's life story. He does so in the knowledge that the dead cannot answer back.
The true story of Vera Atkins's life is far more compelling than anything in this book. I know this because I spent five years researching her extraordinary story across the world. I interviewed her at length before she died and I had sole access to her archive.
I am writing this review not to promote my own book but to defend Vera's integrity. This false "biography" desecrates the memory of a remarkable woman, misses the real story entirely, and brings the American publishing industry into disrepute. In short, it is a publishing farce.

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