Odette: World War Two's Darling Spy

By Penny Starns

Odette Brailly entered the nation's consciousness in the 1950s when her remarkable - and romantic - exploits as an SOE agent first came to light. She had been the first woman to be awarded the GC, as well as the Legion d'Honneur, and in 1950 the release of a film about her life made her the darling of the British popular press. But others openly questioned Odette's personal and professional integrity, even claiming that she had a clandestine affair with her supervisor Capt. Peter Churchill, with whom she had worked undercover in France. Soon she became as controversial as she was celebrated. In the first full biography of this incredible woman for nearly sixty years, historian Penny Starn delves into recently opened SOE personnel files to reveal the true story of this wartime heroine and the officer who posed as her husband. From her life as a French housewife living in Britain and her work undercover with the French Resistance, to her arrest, torture and unlikely survival in Ravensbruck concentration camp, Starns reveals for the first time the truth of Odette's mission and the heart-breaking identity of her real betrayer.

• Language: English
• Publisher: The History Press
• Release date: Sep 25, 2009
• ISBN: 9780752496641

Reviews for Odette

[vanessajiw · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

a much needed modern research on Odette's remarkable and admirable career, from mother to survivor, after extreme gestapo torture and being condemned to death. With co-operation from her family the biography could have been longer and more fascinating. But as it is, at least it ends up being a fast treatment of the main events of her life. Postwar life was dominated by media adulation and then a predictable backlash led by a vindictive lady MP with a private axe to grind and a grossly inadequate reason of her own. Not withstanding this and contesting a misleading Official SOE history, Odette was one of the few agents who could expose SOE for the terrible mistakes that were made in a fledgling organisation. The price of her work was high, life long back problems, permanent scars physical and emotional, would she do it again in another war he was asked? 'No, never' she said...........A good read.

[vanessajw · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

a much needed modern research on Odette's remarkable and admirable career, from mother to survivor, after extreme gestapo torture and being condemned to death. With co-operation from her family the biography could have been longer and more fascinating. But as it is, at least it ends up being a fast treatment of the main events of her life. Postwar life was dominated by media adulation and then a predictable backlash led by a vindictive lady MP with a private axe to grind and a grossly inadequate reason of her own. Not withstanding this and contesting a misleading Official SOE history, Odette was one of the few agents who could expose SOE for the terrible mistakes that were made in a fledgling organisation. The price of her work was high, life long back problems, permanent scars physical and emotional, would she do it again in another war he was asked? 'No, never' she said...........A good read.

[kathrynatwood · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The biographical facts of Odette Brailly Sansom Churchill Hallowes, as presented in Penny Starns’ new book, form a tale of sweeping historical context, duty, passion, and courage. The daughter of a fallen French WWI hero, young Odette Brailly was determined to marry an Englishman and spent the first part of the second world war as a British homemaker. Almost by accident, she was recruited into the ranks of the F (French) Section of the Special Operations Executive (SOE), the British wartime organization intended to galvanize resistance efforts in occupied countries with the assistance of native speakers trained in Britain. Odette worked in occupied France as a courier for the Spindle network, answering to her superior (and eventual lover) Peter Churchill. After being betrayed and captured, Odette was interrogated and tortured but remained stoically silent regarding the whereabouts and activities of her fellow resisters. Condemned to death and sent to Ravensbruck, she miraculously survived to receive both the George Cross and the MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) for her silence under excruciating torture. After testifying at the Nuremburg trials, she tried to settle down to a quiet life. It was not to be. For a decade following the war, she was the darling of a demanding press and public who couldn’t get enough of her story. A fictionalized account of her experiences, written in 1949, became a bestseller and was transformed into a film the following year. Publicity-shy Odette felt it her duty to cooperate with these endeavors but only so that she might bring attention to the work of all the SOE women, many of whom did not return. Then the SOE came under a cloud of suspicion and public disfavor. Had it been a dangerously amateur organization? Did it knowingly betray agents into the hands of the Germans in order to present the enemy with disinformation? Odette’s star fell with the SOE’s, especially when one particular female politician took a special and energetic interest in seeing her fall. The impetus for this new biography – the first in 60 years – seems to have been the recent opening of previously sealed Odette-related SOE files. Dr. Starns makes full use of this information but occasionally overuses it a bit. For instance, the narrative will explain something in detail and then present long paragraphs of SOE quotes regarding the same information. In these cases, Starns should have either explained less before presenting the file quotes or else worked them into the narrative. However, to have access to this material must have seemed like a gold mine to Starns, a professor of World War II, and one can forgive her for sometimes overusing it. She’s obviously fascinated with her subject and the book generally moves along at a compelling, no-nonsense, page-turning clip. Odette’s story is a life-affirming one, a long-overdue biography of a fascinating and heroic woman. (This review is also published at CurledUpWithAGoodBook.com).