A New York Times Bestseller | Winner of the Plutarch Award for Best Biography
“A meticulous history that reads like a thriller”
Ben Macintyre, Ten Best Books to Read About World War II
“Purnell’s account of Hall’s hectic, amphetamine-fuelled exploits never falters.”
Richard Davenport-Hines, The Times
In 1942, the Gestapo would stop at nothing to track down a mysterious 'limping lady' who had eluded its clutches to fight for the freedom of France. Consumed with rage at her daring, Nazi chiefs issued a simple but urgent command: 'She is the most dangerous of all Allied spies. We must find and destroy her.'
The Gestapo's target was Virginia Hall, a glamorous American with a wooden leg who broke through the barriers against her gender and disability to be the first woman to infiltrate Vichy France for the SOE. In so doing she helped turn the course of the intelligence war.
This is the epic tale of an heiress from Maryland who determined that a hunting accident would not define her existence; a young woman who gambled her life to fight alongside the British for the freedoms she believed in; an espionage novice who helped to light the flame of French Resistance, and who would lead a guerrilla campaign to help liberate great swathes of France from the Nazis after D-Day.
Based on new and extensive research, Sonia Purnell has for the first time uncovered the full secret life of Virginia Hall, an astounding and inspiring story of heroism, spycraft, resistance and personal triumph over shocking adversity
New York Times bestseller
“Brilliant…It’s a cllché to describe a true-life spy story as being as gripping as any thriller, but it really is the case… [with this] superb biography.”
Irish Times
“As tales of wartime derring-do go, it would be hard to beat that of Virginia Hall, a young, one-legged American woman who, in the Gestapo’s view, became the Allies’ most dangerous spy…Purnell has written a fitting and moving tribute to an amazing woman”
The Economist Read on
“Sonia Purnell’s excellent A Woman of No Importance, a biography of the remarkable Virginia Hall, the only second world war agent to serve not only with Britain’s Special Operations Executive (SOE) and its later American counterpart, the OSS, but eventually also with the CIA.”
Clare Mulley in the Spectator Read on
“Purnell’s account of Hall’s hectic, amphetamine-fuelled exploits never falters. It recalls Caroline Moorehead’s wonderful book, Village of Secrets, about defiance of the Nazis in Vichy France, but has an added touch of Ben Macintyre’s brio… It is a pleasure to read a biography in which the author admires her subject so warmly. This might so easily have been a pernickety, fact-finding book, but instead it is a rousing tale of derring-do. Men, women and tomboys will all enjoy the courage and initiative of Virginia Hall.”
Richard Davenport-Hines, The Times Read on
“Anyone writing a thriller about the Second World War would be pushed to invent a fiction more compelling than the real-life adventures of Virginia Hall. Sonia Purnell has found a terrific subject…and writes with authority and in vivid detail. This book is a cracking story.”
Jane Ridley, The Oldie
“It is easy to see why Hollywood is showing interest in Purnell’s account of Hall, an authentic heroine who was also American, disabled and a woman. “Marie” thoroughly deserved her laurels.”
Max Hastings, Sunday Times
“A remarkable chronicle…this lively examination… shows how, if Hall had been a man, dropping undercover in and out of occupied Vichy, Paris, and Lyon, setting up safe houses, and coordinating couriers for the Resistance, she would now be as famous as James Bond…Meticulous research results in a significant biography of a trailblazer who now has a CIA building named after her.”
Kirkus
“Purnell’s writing is as precise and engaging as her research, and this book restores overdue attention to one of the world’s great war heroes. It’s a joy to read, and it will swell readers' hearts with pride.”
Booklist
A Woman of No Importance is one of HuffPost's most eagerly awaited books of 2019.
An article by Sonia Purnell in Tortoise. Read here
An article by Sonia Purnell in Medium. Read here
LBC interview with Sonia Purnell. Listen here.
