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Ben MacIntyre & Sonia Purnell - Free Livestream
Ben MacIntyre & Sonia Purnell on Two Female Spies Who Changed the Course of Modern History
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The video of the livestream will be posted on our Youtube Channel after the event.
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Purchase a copy of Agent Sonya at Chevalier's Books.
No one reveals the secrets and deceptions of quirky British spies like Ben MacIntyre. From Agent Zigzag to Operation Mincemeat, to the great Double Cross, or to A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal, MacIntyre rolls the curtain back on the unlikeliest people who would become great heroes--or traitors--for their work in WWII or in the Cold War. MacIntyre's new book, Agent Sonya: Moscow's Most Daring Wartime Spy, uncovers the story of a woman, codename Sonya, whose life in a lovely Cotswold village, belies the truth that she was really a dedicated and dangerous intelligence officer for the Soviets, who ran Soviet agents all over Europe. While living the life of a quiet and unassuming country housewife, married to a machinist (he was also a Soviet spy), she passed scientific secrets to the Soviets, secrets that helped the Soviets build their nuclear arsenal. MacIntyre has the gift of making you think you're reading the next great spy thriller, which you are. But you're reading nonfiction, 20th century history that defies belief.
While Soviet Agent Sonya comes to light in Britain in 1942, an American socialite, Virginia Hill, sets to work in Europe behind enemy lines, at exactly the same time as Agent Sonya. A most unlikely spy, and a most unlikely hero, the American Virginia Hill joined British Intelligence to aid French Resistance in fighting the Nazi's. Sonia Purnell's book, A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of an American Spy Who Helped to Win WWII, centers on one Virginia Hill , and her story beggars belief. Injured in a hunting accident, she wore an artificial leg (named "Cuthbert"), and became the Nazi's Most Wanted due to her ingenuity, courage, and unbridled sense of daring when the Allies landed at Normandy. Her heroics misled the Germans at the Normandy landings, and helped turn the tide of WWII.