Spymistress: The True Story of the Greatest Female Secret Agent of World War II

William Stevenson

Skyhorse Publishing, Inc., Nov 1, 2011 - History - 384 pages

A New York Times Best Seller!

She was beautiful. She was ruthless. She had a steel trap for a mind and a will of iron. Born Vera Maria Rosenberg in Bucharest, she became Vera Atkins, legendary spy and holder of the Legion of Honor. Recruited by William Stevenson--the spymaster who would later come to be known as "Intrepid"--when she was only twenty-three, Vera spent much of the 1930s running countless perilous espionage missions. When war was declared in 1939, her fierce intelligence, blunt manner, personal courage, and knowledge of several languages quickly propelled her to the leadership echelon of the highly secretive Special Operations Executive (SOE), a covert intelligence agency formed by, and reporting to, Winston Churchill. She recruited and trained several hundred agents, including dozens of women, whose objectives were to penetrate deep behind enemy lines.

The stirring exploits and the exemplary courage of the SOE agents and the French Resistance fighters--who in the words of General Dwight D. Eisenhower together "shortened the war by many months"--are justly celebrated. But the central role of Vera Atkins has until now been cloaked in silence. William Stevenson was the only person she trusted to record her life; he kept his promise that he would not publish her story until after her death. Here is the extraordinary account of the woman whose intelligence, beauty, and unflagging dedication proved key in turning the tide of World War II.

Skyhorse Publishing, along with our Arcade, Good Books, Sports Publishing, and Yucca imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs. Our list includes biographies on well-known historical figures like Benjamin Franklin, Nelson Mandela, and Alexander Graham Bell, as well as villains from history, such as Heinrich Himmler, John Wayne Gacy, and O. J. Simpson. We have also published survivor stories of World War II, memoirs about overcoming adversity, first-hand tales of adventure, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

About the author

William Stevenson was born in London, England on June 1, 1924. During World War II, he was a pilot who flew for the British. After the war, he worked briefly for newspapers in England before moving to Canada in 1947 and becoming a foreign correspondent for The Toronto Star. By the 1960s, he was working for the Near and Far East News Group, a propaganda arm of the British government. He also helped produce documentaries for Canadian television and the BBC. He wrote several books including A Man Called Intrepid, 90 Minutes at Entebbe, Intrepid's Last Case, and Past to Present: A Reporter's Story of War, Spies, People, and Politics. He died on November 26, 2013 at the age of 89.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Spymistress: The True Story of the Greatest Female Secret Agent of World War II
• Author: William Stevenson
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing, Inc., 2011
• ISBN: 1611452317, 9781611452310
• Length: 384 pages
• Subjects: History / Military / Strategy; True Crime / Espionage