A Life in Secrets: Vera Atkins and the Missing Agents of WWII by Sarah Helm Presentation copy inscribed, dated and signed (rather intriguingly) by the author on the half-title page thus: "For Richard April 11th 2022 With thanks for Sharing Secrets Sarah."; Nan A. Talese/Doubleday 2005 1st US ed/1st printing, 497pp., deckle-edged text generally in decent order albeit with a small crease and tear to the right hand edge of the fourth last (blank) page & a tiny stain/tear to the bottom edges of pages 481 thru' 484, spine very slightly cocked and boards very slightly warped, bumping and rubbing to board corners at the bottom and to the top and bottom of both boards - noticeably heavier to the top and bottom of the spine, one small bump to the bottom of the rear board, elsewhere both boards and spine slightly marked, the dust jacket has slight internal yellowing, is rubbed and creased at top and bottom (most noticeably at the top of the rear), creasing to the top of the spine and directly below, the front, rear and spine all have some marks and scratches. Once rumored to have been the inspiration for Ian Fleming’'s Miss Moneypenny in the James Bond series of books, Vera Atkins climbed her way to the top in the Special Operations Executive, or SOE: Britain'’s secret service created to help build up, organize, and arm the resistance in the Nazi-occupied countries. Throughout the war, Atkins recruited, trained, and mentored the agents for the SOE'’s French Section, which sent more than 400 young men and women into occupied France, —at least 100 of whom never returned and were reported “Missing Presumed Dead” after the war. Twelve of these were women and among Atkins’'s most cherished spies. When the war ended in 1945, she made it her personal mission to find out what happened to them and the other agents lost behind enemy lines, tracing rigorously their horrific final journeys. But as the woman who carried out this astonishing search appeared quintessentially English, Atkins was nothing of the sort. As we follow her through the devastation of post war Germany, we learn Atkins herself covered her life in mystery so that even her closest family knew almost nothing of her past. In A Life in Secrets Sarah Helm has stripped away Vera Atkins'’s many veils. Drawing on recently released 60-year-old government files and her unprecedented access to the private papers of the Atkins family, Helm vividly reconstructs a complex and extraordinary life. Sarah Helm (born 2 November 1956) is a British journalist and non-fiction writer. She worked for The Sunday Times and The Independent in the 1980's and 1990's. Her first book A Life in Secrets, detailing the life of the secret agent Vera Atkins, was published in 2005. On completing her English studies at the University of Cambridge, Helm became a reporter for The Sunday Times. In 1986, she moved to the newly founded The Independent where she wrote several official secrets articles. For her coverage of the Spycatcher controversy she received the British Press Award for Specialist Writer of the Year. In 1987, she won the Laurence Stern Fellowship, allowing her to work as an intern for The Washington Post. As The Independent's Diplomatic Editor from 1989, she covered the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Gulf War and developments in the Middle East. From 1995, she covered European affairs in Brussels. In 2007, Helm married her long-time partner, Jonathan Powell, who had been Tony Blair's chief of staff since 1997. Helm's first book, A Life in Secrets was highly acclaimed by both The New York Times and The Washington Post. Her play Loyalty (2011) is a semi-fictional view of the Iraq War, said to have drawn on the views of her husband who was Tony Blair's chief of staff. Her latest book, If This Is A Woman: Inside Ravensbrück: Hitler's Concentration Camp for Women (2015), provides accounts of the lives and deaths of thousands of women prisoners in the Ravensbrück concentration camp. Will ship by Royal Mail 1st Class Signed for, well packaged. (£5.39/mil)