Odette
Published Jan 2010
‘I am a very ordinary woman to whom a chance was given to see human beings at their best and at their worst’.
During some of the darkest days of the Second World War, a young Frenchwoman living as a mother and housewife in England, desolate at the plight of her native and adopted countries, left her ordinary life to become a British agent. Working covertly in France to aid the Resistance, she entered a murky and deadly world of espionage and double-dealing. Betrayed to the Germans, she had to endure torture by the Gestapo and the hell of the infamous concentration camp at Ravensbruck…
And yet, she managed to retain a compassion, a grace and a spiritedness that mystified her captors; and living to see the liberation of Europe, she kept her fundamental trust in goodness, despite the direst circumstances.
Odette tells the moving and inspiring story of a woman, who, in her courage and ability to hold on to hope, proved herself to be far from ordinary.
Originally published in 1949, and later filmed with Anna Neagle in the title role, this new edition will be published by Headline in September 2007.