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The Last Secret Agent
On sale
7th November 2024
Price: £16.99
Genre
THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER
‘Vivid, honest, inspiring and sometimes shocking, Pippa Latour’s memoir shows how right the SOE were to assess her as having ‘”tons of guts”‘ -Clare Mulley, author of Agent Zo
‘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.’ -Helen Fry, author of Women in Intelligence
***
‘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 25 female SOE agents would return. None before have told their story in their own words.
This is the astounding true story of Phyliis “Pippa” Latour, one of the last female SOE agents to get out of France alive after its liberation in WWII. 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.
‘Vivid, honest, inspiring and sometimes shocking, Pippa Latour’s memoir shows how right the SOE were to assess her as having ‘”tons of guts”‘ -Clare Mulley, author of Agent Zo
‘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.’ -Helen Fry, author of Women in Intelligence
***
‘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 25 female SOE agents would return. None before have told their story in their own words.
This is the astounding true story of Phyliis “Pippa” Latour, one of the last female SOE agents to get out of France alive after its liberation in WWII. 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.
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Reviews
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.
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.
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.