Page Turners – June 2023 review

In a break with tradition, this month the Page Turners read a non-fiction book – ‘A Life in Secrets: Vera Atkins and the Lost Agents of SOE’ by Sarah Helm.

During World War 2, Vera Atkins worked for the Special Operations Executive’s French Section and was responsible for preparing and looking after the female agents who were parachuted into France to work with the resistance movement. At the end of the war she worked to uncover the fate of twelve of those women who never came home. The book looks in detail at this work but also attempts to solve the mysteries of Vera’s early life.

The book, published in 2005, had been well reviewed and described as ‘fascinating’ and ‘compulsive reading’ and the subject matter seemed interesting and one we would like to learn about. However the word that most of us used to describe the book was ‘disappointing’. We found it to be too long and very dense. It was confusing to read because it had a large cast of characters (and it seemed like more because many had both a real name and an undercover name) and none of them were sufficiently well portrayed to enable the reader to form a relationship with them. For habitual readers of fiction this was difficult. We also did not like the way it jumped about as the journalist author followed different lines of enquiry.

Of course, we did learn new things about the stories of the women who parachuted into occupied France and we were able to discuss their incredible bravery. However, we were shocked by the actions of their British officers who consistently failed to take heed of the fact that radio operators were sending messages without their secret ‘safe’ word, and therefore continued to send operatives and equipment straight into enemy hands.

All in all, we would not recommend this book for your beach read.

Deborah Wallis