Autumn 2024 newsletter
Odette Sansom in 1946, photographer unknown, photo in the public domain
I’ve been struggling with the content of this entry for weeks. I felt strongly that I should address the elephant in the room, but I don’t write about politics. I write about writing.
Which brings me to the biographies of three incredibly brave and largely (in our times) forgotten women. Krystyna Skarbek, Odette Sansom and Virginia Hall were all spies in World War II: Krystyna and Odette for the British Special Operations Executive (SOE); Virginia worked with both the SOE and the American Office of Strategic Services.
All three women faced treachery, sexism, overwhelming odds of failure, and inconceivable physical and mental challenges. They lived with threats of torture and death. (Sansom spent more than two years in German captivity. Despite being tortured and starved, she refused to give up any information to the Gestapo). Collectively, these courageous, resilient women saved tens of thousands of lives.
Virginia Hall receiving the Distinguished Service Cross in 1945, photographer unknown, photo is in the public domain
In a way, they also saved me.
In November, the United States elected a narcissistic misogynist with little regard for the truth. A man who, by his own admission, is enamoured of authoritarian figures. His supporters are a combustible mix of people with a contempt for facts, and/or science, and/or expertise, and/or ethical behaviour, and/or for anyone who disagrees with them.
The United States is a global economic, military, political and cultural behemoth. Like it or not, the US holds a great deal of hard and soft power. Whither it goes…
This isn’t happening in a vacuum of course. Other democracies, including Canada, are seeing the rise of nativism and extremist politics. Some democratic countries have already elected an authoritarian. And authoritarians, whether they were democratically elected or not, act in their own best interest. Once they take office, wide-scale misery, corruption, poverty and repression generally follow. And sometimes war as well.
The elephant in the room, indeed. Dark times are coming.
Like many of my colleagues and friends, I’d been actively avoiding thinking about this. When I did, I felt numb. Or defeatist. Maybe these feelings spur other writers to creative heights, but they made me want to crawl into bed and pull the covers over my head.
In early November, by coincidence, I borrowed Clare Mulley’s fabulous The Spy Who Loved: the Secrets and Lives of Christine Granville from the Toronto Public Library. (Christine Granville was an adopted name; she was born Maria Krystyna Janina Skarbek.) As soon as I read the final page I needed another fix. That came in the form of Code Name Lise: the True Story of the Woman Who Became WWII’s most Decorated Spy. I am now halfway through Sonia Purnell’s 2019 A Woman of No Importance: the Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win WWII.
They are all eye-opening books about women who made a difference. Women who, faced with dark times, did not despair. They acted.
Purnell’s title sums up how we, collectively, have catalogued their place in history. They were women of little importance.
But I bet you know James Bond’s name.
I’ve always been inspired by the stories of unlikely heroes. As a journalist, I interviewed many. I can tell you that none of them were suave, fit, and dressed in designer clothes. In fact, many of the real-life heroes I had the privilege to meet were so modest I had to prod them into telling me their story.
My main character in How the Invisible Woman Learned to Fly, Marcie Blanchard, is a woman in her forties who has been hollowed out by life. She thinks she has zero self-confidence. Yet, when faced with a life or death decision, Marcie discovers depths of courage and ferocity she never knew she had.
Marcie might be fictional but she is not unique. There are many women and men like Marcie; we just don’t celebrate them. We should.
Krystyna Skarbek, aka Christine Granville, date unknown, photographer unknown, photo in the public domain
So, maybe I didn’t seek out that first book - Clare Mulley’s biography of Christine Granville - by coincidence. I’m not a psychologist, but I am aware that we are often motivated by the subconscious mind. Maybe somehow I knew I needed to read about these women. Maybe I knew their stories would be the perfect antidote to climbing into bed and pulling the covers over my head.
I’ve already decided on my next fix, after I finish Purnell’s book. I’ll seek out Tim Brady’s Three Ordinary Girls: the Remarkable Story of Three Dutch Teenagers Who Became Spies, Saboteurs, Nazi Assassins – and WWII Heroes.
Let me know if you’ve read it.