War in the Shadows: Resistance, Deception and Betrayal in Occupied France
‘One of our very best writers on France.’ Antony Beevor

After publishing an acclaimed biography of Jean Moulin, leader of the French Resistance, Patrick Marnham received an anonymous letter from a person who claimed to have worked for British Intelligence during the war. The ex-spy praised his book but insisted that he had missed the real ‘treasure’. The letter drew Marnham back to the early 1960s when he had been taught French by a mercurial woman – a former Resistance leader, whose SOE network was broken on the same day that Moulin was captured and who endured eighteen months in Ravensbrück concentration camp. Could these two events have been connected? His anonymous correspondent offered a tantalising set of clues that seemed to implicate Churchill and British Intelligence in the catastrophe.

Drawing on a deep knowledge of France and original research in British and French archives, War in the Shadows exposes the ruthless double-dealing of the Allied intelligence services and the Gestapo through one of the darkest periods of the Second World War. It is a story worthy of Le Carré, but with this difference – it is not fiction.

‘A melange of Le Grand Meaulnes and The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. It is unforgettable.’ Ferdinand Mount, TLS, Books of the Year

‘A masterly analysis, impeccably presented.’ Allan Mallinson, Spectator

‘Fascinating... Marnham has a vast and scholarly knowledge of this often treacherous world.’ Caroline Moorehead, Literary Review
1136528327
War in the Shadows: Resistance, Deception and Betrayal in Occupied France
‘One of our very best writers on France.’ Antony Beevor

After publishing an acclaimed biography of Jean Moulin, leader of the French Resistance, Patrick Marnham received an anonymous letter from a person who claimed to have worked for British Intelligence during the war. The ex-spy praised his book but insisted that he had missed the real ‘treasure’. The letter drew Marnham back to the early 1960s when he had been taught French by a mercurial woman – a former Resistance leader, whose SOE network was broken on the same day that Moulin was captured and who endured eighteen months in Ravensbrück concentration camp. Could these two events have been connected? His anonymous correspondent offered a tantalising set of clues that seemed to implicate Churchill and British Intelligence in the catastrophe.

Drawing on a deep knowledge of France and original research in British and French archives, War in the Shadows exposes the ruthless double-dealing of the Allied intelligence services and the Gestapo through one of the darkest periods of the Second World War. It is a story worthy of Le Carré, but with this difference – it is not fiction.

‘A melange of Le Grand Meaulnes and The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. It is unforgettable.’ Ferdinand Mount, TLS, Books of the Year

‘A masterly analysis, impeccably presented.’ Allan Mallinson, Spectator

‘Fascinating... Marnham has a vast and scholarly knowledge of this often treacherous world.’ Caroline Moorehead, Literary Review
17.95 In Stock
War in the Shadows: Resistance, Deception and Betrayal in Occupied France

War in the Shadows: Resistance, Deception and Betrayal in Occupied France

by Patrick Marnham
War in the Shadows: Resistance, Deception and Betrayal in Occupied France

War in the Shadows: Resistance, Deception and Betrayal in Occupied France

by Patrick Marnham

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$17.95 
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Overview

‘One of our very best writers on France.’ Antony Beevor

After publishing an acclaimed biography of Jean Moulin, leader of the French Resistance, Patrick Marnham received an anonymous letter from a person who claimed to have worked for British Intelligence during the war. The ex-spy praised his book but insisted that he had missed the real ‘treasure’. The letter drew Marnham back to the early 1960s when he had been taught French by a mercurial woman – a former Resistance leader, whose SOE network was broken on the same day that Moulin was captured and who endured eighteen months in Ravensbrück concentration camp. Could these two events have been connected? His anonymous correspondent offered a tantalising set of clues that seemed to implicate Churchill and British Intelligence in the catastrophe.

Drawing on a deep knowledge of France and original research in British and French archives, War in the Shadows exposes the ruthless double-dealing of the Allied intelligence services and the Gestapo through one of the darkest periods of the Second World War. It is a story worthy of Le Carré, but with this difference – it is not fiction.

‘A melange of Le Grand Meaulnes and The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. It is unforgettable.’ Ferdinand Mount, TLS, Books of the Year

‘A masterly analysis, impeccably presented.’ Allan Mallinson, Spectator

‘Fascinating... Marnham has a vast and scholarly knowledge of this often treacherous world.’ Caroline Moorehead, Literary Review

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780861540587
Publisher: Oneworld Publications
Publication date: 10/12/2021
Pages: 400
Product dimensions: 5.10(w) x 7.80(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Patrick Marnham lived and worked in France for many years. He has been a staff writer for Private Eye, a BBC script writer, Literary Editor of the Spectator and Paris correspondent of the Independent and the Evening Standard. His biographies include lives of the Resistance leader Jean Moulin, and the novelists Georges Simenon and Mary Wesley. His most recent travel book is Snake Dance: Journeys Beneath a Nuclear Sky.

Table of Contents

Foreword xi

Maps xiii

List of Principal Characters xv

A Note on Noms de Guerre, the BCRA and SOE(RF) xxiii

Chronology xxv

Glossary xxxiii

Introduction: An Anonymous Letter 1

Part I The House by the River

1 Summer of '62 - The Lost Domain 11

2 The Visitors' Book 29

3 The Fugitive 41

Part II A Childish and Deadly Game

4 'Setting Whitehall Ablaze' 57

5 The Swamps and the Forest 66

6 A Network Called Adolphe 77

7 Dreaming Up a Second Front 89

8 'That Jeanne d'Arc in trousers' 97

9 The Fall of PROSPER 114

Part III Settling Scores

10 The Purge 135

11 The Jurors of Honour 147

12 Questions in Parliament 163

Part IV The Mystery of Caluire

13 Inside 84 Avenue Foch 177

14 The House of Doctor Dugoujon 189

15 A Resistance Legend Is Born 205

16 The Trial of Commissioner Aubrac 211

Part V The Secret War

17 The Remarkable Immunity of Madame Delettraz 225

18 Setting History Ablaze! 235

19 The Last Mission of Jack Agazarian 252

20 Colonel Dansey's Private War 267

21 The Depths of Deception 285

Afterword: The Level Sands 301

Postscript 314

Casualty List 319

Bibliography 321

Notes 327

Acknowledgements 348

Index 351

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