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Women in Intelligence

The Hidden History of Two World Wars

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Women in Intelligence

By: Helen Fry
Narrated by: Gemma Dawson
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About this listen

A groundbreaking history of women in British intelligence, revealing their pivotal role across the first half of the twentieth century

From the twentieth century onward, women took on an extraordinary range of roles in intelligence, defying the conventions of their time. Across both world wars, far from being a small part of covert operations, women ran spy networks and escape lines, parachuted behind enemy lines, and interrogated prisoners. And, back in Bletchley and Whitehall, women's vital administrative work in MI offices kept the British war engine running.

In this major, panoramic history, Helen Fry looks at the rich and varied work women undertook as civilians and in uniform. From spies in the Belgian network "La Dame Blanche," knitting coded messages into jumpers, to those who interpreted aerial images and even ran entire sections, Fry shows just how crucial women were in the intelligence mission. Filled with hitherto unknown stories, Women in Intelligence places new research on record for the first time and showcases the inspirational contributions of these remarkable women.

©2023 Helen Fry (P)2024 Tantor Freedom & Security Military Politics & Government Women Espionage War Imperialism

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Having read all of Helens books with 2 of them in my top 5 reads (The walls have ears at No1), this effort was overall tinged with disappointment. The anti men feeling was quite noticeable so much so I considered putting the book down after 4 chapters, I continued because I am interested in the efforts of women in intelligence during wartime and the backdrop was clear enough from the outset, It was not necessary to highlight the inequalities women faced with such regularity. This book felt rushed & unstructured even given the lack of information for the obvious reasons. I doubt the anti male sentiment is Helens as her admiration for people like TJ Kendrick among others is evident from previous books but this effort seems to have gone through the filter of a teenage genders studies wannabe which was on occasion reflected in the tone of the narrator (whose hesitancy & odd emphasis was unimpressive) makes it unpalatable.
All that said, I will never lose my admiration for those women like Baggert who almost certainly saved many many lives. A special place is reserved for Minsk and those nuns who are the epitome of bravery.

A little disappointing.

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Many good stories, but the narration speed varies from normal to v e r r r y slow - like someone's messing with the recording. It is distracting and annoying, hence the lower score.

Stop messing with the narration speed

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Robotic voice with no flow or expression. The book is wonderful but not the audible version

Terrible recording

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This is yet another excellent book by Helen Fry. Almost as much a social history as it is military, packed full facts and stories, whether you have read in this area elsewhere or not I’m pretty sure you’ll get a lot from it. (Don’t be put off by the comment about the narrator. Some of the pronunciation’s might jar a little, and you might find Gemma Dawson’s voice a bit clipped, but I often run my books at a slightly faster speed, and this suited this book.) I will seek out a copy of this book because I will use it as a future reference book and dip in here and there again. I really enjoyed this book. Stuart

Excellent. History with women put back in it.

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What an excellent book, highlighting the often forgotten and frequently underestimated roles of women in military intelligence in WW1 and WW2. This covered women acting as agents in Churchill's Secret Army (SOE), code breakers, interrogators, active agents like Virginia Hall who was instrumental in keeping the French Resistance active after the deaths of most of the field agents (and ran it almost singlehandedly as the main contact for some time), secretaries in the war office, analysts and more. Really, I had no idea women were in so many roles in military intelligence in the world wars. This book was thoroughly researched, excellently written and truly inspiring. Frequently sad at times too, since many of these women, for security reasons, have never received any recognition... Until now

I would add an extra note, that I saw a few reviews which accused this book of anti-male polemic, I believe one said the text was man-hating. I believe these readers either read a different book to me or chose to take personally the occasional reference to the struggle these women had in a world where they did not own equal rights to men . There are certainly references to a patriarchal system which did not take women seriously or offered them equal rights, but that is, indeed, part of the story, and what I remembered more from this book was the mentions of men of vision, willing to look beyond the conventions and restrictions of their societal norms who hired women for roles they had never played in the military before, who took a risk by accepting women into skilled and sometimes highly dangerous roles.
This book, just as it highlighted the excellence of women, did so too for men. Comments about this book being anti male or man hating are disingenuous, and I suspect spring more from a lack of understanding that criticism of a patriarchal system is not necessarily criticism of the men, or indeed women, within it but criticism of a social structure which represses the rights of one group (or more) in favour of promoting those of another. Readers taking a mere mention of the word patriarchy personally enough to spout lies about the book's contents in reviews perhaps makes this book even more appealing to me. If a book about women in military intelligence has upset such people, then it's probably doing its job perfectly.
Highly recommended.

Excellent, what a book!

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A potentially fascinating subject spoilt by the superficially of the text and a banal audio.

What a Disappointment

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