Spymistress: The True Story of the Greatest Female Secret Agent of World War II

It is difficult to imagine the awesome fortitude and intelligence that this singleSPYMISSTRESS could organize, recruit and manage a spy network in European WW II.Her strong belief in including women in thespy world and her intuitive skills of convincing high officials that a clandestine spy system would be crucial to win the war.An amazing woman and a true story!

Book arrived in excellent condition.

Not for the casual reader. Learned a lot about ww2 history and how the British and Americans conducted themselves in the spy world.

This is a true story of a woman in the British SS we never knew. Vera was born in Romania about the time of World War 1., Ade a young woman she escaped to England and eventually worked her way into the Special Services. While she mostly worked in England, she did make several trips to Romania, Poland and other European countries during WW @. One of her colleagues was Ian Fleming who later created James Bond. This book is riveting and a sneak peak into the workings of the British Secret Service.

This book on Vera Atkins was very interesting but a difficult book to fully absorb. Parts seemed totally out of context and I tried to research using Google but after awhile realized I would never finish this book if I continued all the research. There were so, so many characters. She was a fascinating and very courageous woman. Parts I skimmed, highlighted a lot of names to go back when they resurfaced in later chapters. Another item this book addressed was the horrible circumstances the Jewish people and Polish people faced not only during the war but after, very enlightening but quite sad.

Indeed, giants did once walk the earth--and many of them wore dresses. This is a fascinating and awe-inspiring true account of women (and men) who volunteered to work behind enemy lines to defeat the Nazis. Yet their contributions and great sacrifice were never publically or often evenly privately proclaimed. In an era when the word hero is too often trivialized and people adulate celebrity and wealth; Spymistress introduces the reader to people of integrity, determined purpose, awe-inspiring courage, and value. It is a should read for all.

Being a WWII history buff, I learned a number of things by reading this book. I never knew there were so many women spies during the war. Also, the bias against the Jews that pervaded even after the war was a surprise to me, since the Allies then knew of the atrocities performed against them.

As interesting as this book made the information ,information that in my opinion, is very interesting. Story line was laid out .

My god I hated this, and myself more so for actually reading it to the end, in the naive hope that it might improve. Without realising it until now, it is the sole reason putting me off reading Sarah Helm's book on the same subject. Its a curiously vague account of the life of Vera Atkins, a key member of F(rench) section in SOE, but I should have been wary, because he is the same author to another weird book, titled A Man called Intrepid.The author claimed to know the subject, and excoriated all and anyone who served in the unit, giving the impression that she was running the operation and without her it would fall to pieces. This book was preparatory material for her recommendation for sainthood. I just could not tie up his account with any other accounts of the wartime unit I have read, and I acknowledge there was a broad spectrum of opinion. Atkins was an exceptional woman, but not the saint portrayed here.Regrettably the Helm book will remain on my shelf for a while longer, while I remove the taste of this book from my memory.One of a very few books that I made the mistake to buy, and subsequently scored only 1 star.

Of all war and spy books i have read, none was as informative and realistic as this one. I am a great reader of world history, including espionage through the ages, most specifically during the second world war, Spymistress is superb, hard to put down. I am 80 yrs. old, and still would like to recommend this book to the young University students the true real facts of the cause of the ll WW and the fearless dedicated heros instrumental to our victory. We, who are now old, will never forget their sacrifice and love for our country. Thank you, Mr. William Stevenson, may God bless you.Julie David

I'm afraid that I found this book hard going. It reads like one of those boring, dry documentaries and I gave up after reading it after a couple of chapters as the story was being told in facts and figures. I'll maybe have another go at it in the future but for now I must say that I was disappointed and would not recommend this unless you were doing an academic article about this lady (Vera Atkins).My disappointment stems from the fact that I'm sure this must be a really interesting story that, if told by a better author, would actually be a gripping tale. I gave it three stars out of respect for the brave people remembered in this book rather than for any merits of the book itself.

This is a book about a true Spymaster/handler. This is possibly the real Miss Moneypenny which Ian Fleming used in his Bond Novels! However she was far more than that she was in charge of agents and she did try to look after them. Is a good read and shows that at times due to her foreign status she could not make waves with her incompetent boss.

Fantastic read. Couldn't put it down. Full of fascinating stories of her very important exploits. Friend of Ian Fleming, she was the real Miss Moneypenny. The author also reveals who was "Q". She stipulated that it could only be published after her death. This is, in part, becauseshe didn't want to be besieged by reporters and researchers in her well earned retirement. I shall re-read it many times.