a woman of no importance by sonia purnell summary

A Woman of No Importance is the breathtaking story of how one woman's fierce persistence helped win the war.įor Rainie et al, the authors of a recent report on e-reading as a growing practice, “The rise of e-books … is part of a larger story about a shift from printed to digital material” (2012, p.1), which in turn is part of a history of technologies of publishing and reading that date back to antiquity. Based on new and extensive research, Sonia Purnell has for the first time uncovered the full secret life of Virginia Hall-an astounding and inspiring story of heroism, spycraft, resistance, and personal triumph over shocking adversity. But she plunged back in, adamant that she had more lives to save, and led a victorious guerilla campaign, liberating swathes of France from the Nazis after D-Day.

She finally escaped through a death-defying hike over the Pyrenees into Spain, her cover blown. Even as her face covered wanted posters and a bounty was placed on her head, Virginia refused order after order to evacuate. Virginia established vast spy networks throughout France, called weapons and explosives down from the skies, and became a linchpin for the Resistance. We must find and destroy her.' The target in their sights 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.' She became the first Allied woman deployed behind enemy lines and-despite her prosthetic leg-helped to light the flame of the French Resistance, revolutionizing secret warfare as we know it. In 1942, the Gestapo sent out an urgent transmission: 'She is the most dangerous of all Allied spies.

A woman of no importance by sonia purnell summary