In this vivid and eye-opening tale of wartime service and danger, the last surviving SOE agent recounts her time working behind enemy lines in Nazi-occupied France for the first time.
'You know you can change your mind, don't you? Even now. Even when you are halfway across the English Channel. Any time before you jump.'
'Yes, I know,' I quickly reassured her, 'and I won't.'
In June 1940, a covert new force - the Special Operations Executive (SOE) - was set up to wage a secret war. Its agents were tasked with sabotage and subversion behind enemy lines, and over the course of the next five years, 470 special agents would be sent into France. Only 26 female SOE agents would return. None before have told their story in their own words.
This is the astounding true story of Phyllis "Pippa" Latour, the last surviving SOE agent. Born in 1921, Pippa's was an unusual childhood, followed by an even more extraordinary early adult life as she was parachuted into France aged 23. Incredibly brave, she travelled around the rural French countryside, concealing her codes in a hair tie and her Morse key underneath her bicycle seat, and sending crucial information back to Britain in the lead-up to D-Day. More than once she came frighteningly close to being discovered.
For decades, Pippa told no one - not even her family - of her incredible feats. Now for the first time, her story can be told in full.
Publisher: Octopus Publishing Group
ISBN: 9781800962774
Number of pages: 288
Weight: 480 g
Dimensions: 238 x 160 x 32 mm
Vivid, honest, inspiring and sometimes shocking, Pippa Latour's memoir shows how right the SOE were to assess her as having 'tons of guts'. The Last Secret Agent provides an important and compelling contribution to the record of women's active service behind enemy lines in the Second World War. - Clare Mulley
This memoir of the last SOE F section agent Pippa Latour is vivid and vibrant. Her own words echo with resonance across the pages, punctuated with historical context and fact. Pippa's story will remain in the hearts and minds of readers for a long time, keeping her memory very much alive. - Kate Vigurs, author of Mission France: The True History of the Women of SOE
A rare glimpse into the life of the last surviving SOE agent to have seen action behind enemy lines in France. Pippa's story is one of immense courage and personal sacrifice... a truly gripping and remarkable wartime service. - Helen Fry, author of 'Women in Intelligence'
Extraordinary... enthralling. We may think we have read all we need to about the Second World War's secret war, but despite an army of histories and fine biographies, Latour's account is the only first-person memoir we have by a female agent within it. It's also almost certainly the last, as she was the only surviving France Section SOE agent - sent to "set Europe ablaze" - until recently, dying a year ago after finishing her book, aged 102. A darkly moving, marvellously detailed book. - The Telegraph
Compulsively readable... a brilliant book. - Mail On Sunday
An absorbing biography of an incredible woman. The story is told with wonderful detail and lots of emotions. Pippa Latour comes through in the narrative as a very engaging and remarkable person.
A word not used by me very often but an awesome memoir from the last surviving member of the French section of SOE during WWII. Using her own memories and words and wonderfully researched and written this is the most... More
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