--- product_id: 205322534 title: "A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II" price: "VT8722" currency: VUV in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.vu/products/205322534-a-woman-of-no-importance-the-untold-story-of-american store_origin: VU region: Vanuatu --- # A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II **Price:** VT8722 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II - **How much does it cost?** VT8722 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.vu](https://www.desertcart.vu/products/205322534-a-woman-of-no-importance-the-untold-story-of-american) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description OVER A MILLION COPIES SOLD WORLDWIDE • A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Chosen as a BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR by NPR , the New York Public Library, desertcart, the Seattle Times , the Washington Independent Review of Books , PopSugar , the Minneapolis Star Tribune , BookBrowse, the Spectator , and the Times of London Winner of the Plutarch Award for Best Biography “E xcellent…This book is as riveting as any thriller, and as hard to put down .” -- The New York Times Book Review "A compelling biography of a masterful spy, and a reminder of what can be done with a few brave people -- and a little resistance." - NPR "A meticiulous history that reads like a thriller." - Ben Macintyre A never-before-told story of Virginia Hall, the American spy who changed the course of World War II, from the author of Clementine. In 1942, the Gestapo sent out an urgent transmission: "She is the most dangerous of all Allied spies. 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. Virginia established vast spy networks throughout France, called weapons and explosives down from the skies, and became a linchpin for the Resistance. Even as her face covered wanted posters and a bounty was placed on her head, Virginia refused order after order to evacuate. She finally escaped through a death-defying hike over the Pyrenees into Spain, her cover blown. 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. 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. A Woman of No Importance is the breathtaking story of how one woman's fierce persistence helped win the war. Review: What a remarkable woman! - This book came to me from a friend who thought that I would find it interesting. I did! This is the story of a woman who posessed grit, determination, and fortitude. As a young girl, she would have been my hero, my role model - if I had only known her story! This book grabbed me from the beginning and was a mix of heroism and espionage throughout. At times it was hard to believe that this was a true account because of the subtrefuge, adventure, and daily adapting to new challenges. If there is one book you should read - this is it! Review: An American woman behind the lines in war-time France, 1940-1945 - Sydney M. Williams “A Woman of No Importance,” Sonia Purnell February 6, 2021 “‘There are endless nightmares of uncertainty,’ explained one. ‘The tensions, the nerve strain and fatigue, the all-demanding alertness of living a lie, these are [the agent’s]to meet, accept and control. They are never really conquered.’” Quote from a former member of the SOE in war-time France Sonia Purnell A Woman of No Importance, 2019 Besides being a gripping tale of the Resistance in France during the Second World War, this is the story of Virginia Hall, an American woman, with an artificial leg, who operated behind enemy lines at a time when being a female in a combat zone was unusual, let alone one who was disabled. “If caught,” Ms. Purnell writes, “women were…subjected to the worst forms of torture the depraved Nazi mind-set could devise.” Virginia Hall was the daughter of a wealthy Baltimore banker and a social-climbing mother. She was born in 1906 and like her mother was ambitious but directed her ambition “toward a career and exploring the world rather than bagging a feckless husband.” At age twenty, after one year at Radcliffe and one at Barnard, she moved to Paris and enrolled in the École Libre des Sciences Politiques. She spent three years in Europe, becoming fluent in French, German, Spanish and Italian. She came home and joined the State Department as a clerk. In 1931, she returned to Europe, working for State in Poland and Turkey. An accident in the fall of 1933, while on a hunting trip near the Aegean Sea, caused her to shoot herself in her left foot. Fearful of gangrene, doctors in Turkey amputated the leg below the knee. In the spring of 1934, she was back in Maryland. Two years later, she rejoined the State Department and returned to Europe. With the Continent spinning toward war, she worked in Vienna. “Pigeonholed as a disabled woman of no importance, she resigned from the State Department in March 1939.” In February 1940, she joined the French 9th Artillery Regiment as an ambulance driver. In June 1941, when France was overrun, she returned to London and enlisted in the newly formed SOE (Special Operations Executive). By early September 1941 she was a spy in Lyon, France. She had found her métier. The story of her exploits in France, especially in Lyons and later in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon are told in excruciating detail. All agents are scared and most suffered from insomnia. “Everyone experienced loneliness and an urge to share their thoughts and fears, but survival meant holding back.” Yet, for Virginia: “For all the grinding fear, she had never been so happy. For all the frustration, she had never been so fulfilled.” Nevertheless, “the Gestapo considered her the most dangerous of all Allied spies.” The three and a half years she spent with the Resistance demonstrated her bravery, coolness, competence and selflessness. The collapse of the Vichy government, in late 1942, necessitated a recall to London, which meant a fifty-mile hike across the Pyrenees in winter, difficult for anyone, but Ms. Hall had to do it on a wooden leg, while carrying a suitcase. After a debriefing, she returned to France in May 1943, now working for the OSS and based on the Haute-Loire plateau, where she became known as the “Madonna of the Mountains.” Two years later, the War was over. In September 1945 she returned to the United States. Virginia Hall was awarded medals from three countries – an MBE, the Croix de Guerre and the DSC (Distinguished Service Cross). In 1957 she married Lieutenant Paul Goillot, whom she had met in September 1944 when he parachuted into France and became one of her “irregulars.” While she became one of the first officers, of the newly formed CIA, it was “in fighting for the liberty of another nation, she had found freedom for herself.” The only criticism I had with the book is that it has too much detail: the frequent moves she had to make, the naivete of some of her comrades and the savgery of her enemies. One winces as one reads. Her survival, as it was for any member of the Resistance, was a miracle – a function of navigating between tens of thousands of French collaborators and those few who never let despair or the brutality of the Nazi occupiers dictate their behavior. Ms. Hall died in 1982 at age 76. In June 1988, her name was added to the Military Intelligence Corps Hall of Fame. On the Haute-Loire plateau, she remains a legend. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #3,541 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #1 in Historical France Biographies #5 in Women in History #24 in Women's Biographies | | Customer Reviews | 4.5 out of 5 stars 24,591 Reviews | ## Images ![A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81xQkXL6cEL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ What a remarkable woman! *by M***D on March 4, 2026* This book came to me from a friend who thought that I would find it interesting. I did! This is the story of a woman who posessed grit, determination, and fortitude. As a young girl, she would have been my hero, my role model - if I had only known her story! This book grabbed me from the beginning and was a mix of heroism and espionage throughout. At times it was hard to believe that this was a true account because of the subtrefuge, adventure, and daily adapting to new challenges. If there is one book you should read - this is it! ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ An American woman behind the lines in war-time France, 1940-1945 *by S***S on February 6, 2021* Sydney M. Williams “A Woman of No Importance,” Sonia Purnell February 6, 2021 “‘There are endless nightmares of uncertainty,’ explained one. ‘The tensions, the nerve strain and fatigue, the all-demanding alertness of living a lie, these are [the agent’s]to meet, accept and control. They are never really conquered.’” Quote from a former member of the SOE in war-time France Sonia Purnell A Woman of No Importance, 2019 Besides being a gripping tale of the Resistance in France during the Second World War, this is the story of Virginia Hall, an American woman, with an artificial leg, who operated behind enemy lines at a time when being a female in a combat zone was unusual, let alone one who was disabled. “If caught,” Ms. Purnell writes, “women were…subjected to the worst forms of torture the depraved Nazi mind-set could devise.” Virginia Hall was the daughter of a wealthy Baltimore banker and a social-climbing mother. She was born in 1906 and like her mother was ambitious but directed her ambition “toward a career and exploring the world rather than bagging a feckless husband.” At age twenty, after one year at Radcliffe and one at Barnard, she moved to Paris and enrolled in the École Libre des Sciences Politiques. She spent three years in Europe, becoming fluent in French, German, Spanish and Italian. She came home and joined the State Department as a clerk. In 1931, she returned to Europe, working for State in Poland and Turkey. An accident in the fall of 1933, while on a hunting trip near the Aegean Sea, caused her to shoot herself in her left foot. Fearful of gangrene, doctors in Turkey amputated the leg below the knee. In the spring of 1934, she was back in Maryland. Two years later, she rejoined the State Department and returned to Europe. With the Continent spinning toward war, she worked in Vienna. “Pigeonholed as a disabled woman of no importance, she resigned from the State Department in March 1939.” In February 1940, she joined the French 9th Artillery Regiment as an ambulance driver. In June 1941, when France was overrun, she returned to London and enlisted in the newly formed SOE (Special Operations Executive). By early September 1941 she was a spy in Lyon, France. She had found her métier. The story of her exploits in France, especially in Lyons and later in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon are told in excruciating detail. All agents are scared and most suffered from insomnia. “Everyone experienced loneliness and an urge to share their thoughts and fears, but survival meant holding back.” Yet, for Virginia: “For all the grinding fear, she had never been so happy. For all the frustration, she had never been so fulfilled.” Nevertheless, “the Gestapo considered her the most dangerous of all Allied spies.” The three and a half years she spent with the Resistance demonstrated her bravery, coolness, competence and selflessness. The collapse of the Vichy government, in late 1942, necessitated a recall to London, which meant a fifty-mile hike across the Pyrenees in winter, difficult for anyone, but Ms. Hall had to do it on a wooden leg, while carrying a suitcase. After a debriefing, she returned to France in May 1943, now working for the OSS and based on the Haute-Loire plateau, where she became known as the “Madonna of the Mountains.” Two years later, the War was over. In September 1945 she returned to the United States. Virginia Hall was awarded medals from three countries – an MBE, the Croix de Guerre and the DSC (Distinguished Service Cross). In 1957 she married Lieutenant Paul Goillot, whom she had met in September 1944 when he parachuted into France and became one of her “irregulars.” While she became one of the first officers, of the newly formed CIA, it was “in fighting for the liberty of another nation, she had found freedom for herself.” The only criticism I had with the book is that it has too much detail: the frequent moves she had to make, the naivete of some of her comrades and the savgery of her enemies. One winces as one reads. Her survival, as it was for any member of the Resistance, was a miracle – a function of navigating between tens of thousands of French collaborators and those few who never let despair or the brutality of the Nazi occupiers dictate their behavior. Ms. Hall died in 1982 at age 76. In June 1988, her name was added to the Military Intelligence Corps Hall of Fame. On the Haute-Loire plateau, she remains a legend. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Once it picked up speed, it was a great ride! *by K***M on February 24, 2026* I was running out of World War 2 era books to read, so this was a nice break from the more country or formal service related books. I thought it started out a bit slow, or maybe disjointed, I'm not sure. I even put it on the shelf for a few weeks. Once I took it back down and started reading again, it really started gathering momentum. Now it's turned into a fantastic deep dive into a woman who made James Bond look like child's play. As her operation grew, along with her risks, I was absolutely dumbfounded at some of the missions/events the OSE executed. Now it's hard to put it down, with stories of prison escapes using stale break to mold a key from a lock, clandestine radio operations from prison that involved laying transmission wire IN THE PRISON with no one noticing, the ferrying of people in and out of the Lyon area of France at the height of Germans cracking down on French resistance and foreign interference of any kind. The pacing reached a perfect tempo, and the stories became more unbelievable as I got further into the book, even though they are from real OSE archives and other sources. Very happy to have picked this book to dive into. ## Frequently Bought Together - A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II - The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War - The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.vu/products/205322534-a-woman-of-no-importance-the-untold-story-of-american](https://www.desertcart.vu/products/205322534-a-woman-of-no-importance-the-untold-story-of-american) --- *Product available on Desertcart Vanuatu* *Store origin: VU* *Last updated: 2026-05-12*