The Untold Story of Britain's First Female Special Agent of World War IIIn June 1952, a woman was murdered by an obsessed colleague in a hotel in the South Kensington district of London. Her name was Christine Granville. That she died young was perhaps unsurprising; that she had survived the Second World War was remarkable.The daughter of a feckless Polish aristocrat and his wealthy Jewish wife, Granville would become one of Britain's most daring and highly decorated special agents. Having fled to Britain on the outbreak of war, she was recruited by the intelligence services and took on mission after mission. She skied over the hazardous High Tatras into occupied Poland, served in Egypt and North Africa, and was later parachuted behind enemy lines into France, where an agent's life expectancy was only six weeks. Her courage, quick wit, and determination won her release from arrest more than once, and saved the lives of several fellow officers―including one of her many lovers―just hours before their execution by the Gestapo. More importantly, the intelligence she gathered in her espionage was a significant contribution to the Allied war effort, and she was awarded the George Medal, the OBE, and the Croix de Guerre.Granville exercised a mesmeric power on those who knew her. In The Spy Who Loved, acclaimed biographer Clare Mulley tells the extraordinary history of this charismatic, difficult, fearless, and altogether extraordinary woman.

Product Description: Just weeks after Germany invaded her homeland, Christine Granville, (born Krystyna Skarbek), the daughter of a Polish aristocrat, arrived in London and demanded to work for the British Secret Service. Described in an intelligence report as a great adventuress and absolutely fearless, she became one of the SOEs most daring, determined and highly decorated agents...read more

2009 marks the 90th anniversary of Save the Children, a charity that fights to uphold the human rights of children wherever they are threatened. Now promoted by the likes of Brad Pitt, George Clooney, and Julianne Moore the charity’s original founder was a childless spinster in a brown cardigan whose most famous line, ‘I don’t care for children’ makes hers a most unconventional story. At once a romantic and realist, Eglantyne’s short life (she died aged just 52) was full of humour and tragedy, passion and pain. She moved from illicit romance in Cambridge to espionage in Serbia, from private spiritualism in Shropshire to public arrest in Trafalgar Square. And while children’s universal human rights are yet to be realised, Eglantyne’s achievement of putting them on the world agenda is a powerful testament to her rare combination of personal courage, eccentric charisma, and humane vision. Clare Mulley joined Save the Children as a corporate fundraiser in the 1990s. She is the mother of three daughters and currently lives in Essex, UK.