Between Silk and Cyanide: A Codemaker's Story 1941-1945The secret of SOE's code war revealed for the first time... 'As a comedy about the British at war, Leo Marks's book ranks with the fiction of Anthony Powell and Evelyn Waugh.' Observer * This is the witty, engrossing and highly personalised account of Leo Marks's experiences during the Second World War. He worked for the SOE -- responsible for placing, monitoring and communicating with all British secret agents working in enemy territory. Marks played a crucial role, re-inventing how agents sent coded messages back to London and using every trick in the book to get his way. * Between Silk and Cyanide is a great mixture of high level espionage, cynical commentary on government power struggles, human feeling for the agents risking everything for the war effort, and a keen sense of the absurd. 'Leo Marks never made it into the field himself. But his memoirs are as explosive as any sabotage conducted by those who did... Leo Marks never once loses contact with the personal courage and sufferings of the agents in the field, the reality which so shames the Whitehall warriors in the eyes of posterity... His tale is by turns fiery, scabrous, infuriating and deeply tragic. The eyes mist over |
Contents
A Hard Man to Place | 1 |
The Pilot Light | 16 |
A Collectors Item | 21 |
Copyright | |
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Arquebus arrived asked Baker Street Bletchley Boni Boni's break briefing officers Buckmaster caught code department code room code-book code-groups code-name coders Colonel Commander convinced country sections Courtauld cryptographers D-Day Dansey desk dropped Duke Street Dutch agents Dutch section Ebenezer Einar Skinnarland encoded explained FANY France Free French Gaulle Germans Gestapo girls Giskes glanced going Grendon Grouse Gubbins hand head Heffer Holland hoped indecipherable indicator-groups informed instructed Jedburgh keys knew letter one-time pads London looked Marks mistake Nicholls Nick Nick's night nodded Noor Noor Inayat Khan once one-time pads Ozanne Peter Churchill Plan Giskes poem poem-code question realized RF section Secret Army secret French code security checks sent Signals directorate Signals Office silk codes Skinnarland SOE's station teleprint tell thanked Tiltman told Tommy took traffic transmitted transposition-key trying Violette Szabo waiting wanted warned week who'd wireless WOKs words WT operator