Overview

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER 'Vivid, honest, inspiring and sometimes shocking, Pippa Latour's memoir shows how right the SOE were to assess her as having '""tons of guts""' -CLARE MULLEY, author of Agent Zo '***** Extraordinary... enthralling... a darkly moving, marvellously detailed book.' -Telegraph 'A rare glimpse into the life of the last surviving SOE agent to have seen action behind enemy lines in France. Pippa's story is one of immense courage and personal sacrifice... a truly gripping and remarkable wartime service.' -HELEN FRY, author of Women in Intelligence 'Vivid and vibrant. Pippa's words echo with resonance across the pages, punctuated with historical context and fact.' -KATE VIGURS, author of Mission France *** The memoir of Pippa Latour - the first and last female secret agent to share her experiences undercover during WW2. In June 1940, a covert new force - the Special Operations Executive (SOE) - was set up to wage a secret war of sabotage and subversion behind enemy lines. Of the 470 agents sent to France only 26 female agents returned and none have ever told their story before. Phyllis ""Pippa"" Latour was parachuted into France aged 23; she bravely travelled around the rural French countryside, concealing her codes in a hair tie and her Morse key underneath her bicycle seat, and sending crucial information back to Britain in the lead-up to D-Day. More than once, she came frighteningly close to being discovered. For decades, Pippa told no one - not even her family - of her incredible feats. Now for the first time, her astonishing story can be told in full. *Number one overall in its first week on the New Zealand Nielsen Bookscan charts April 2025. Top 10 New Zealand non-fiction bestseller April-June 2025.

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9781800962798

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Reviews

Vivid, honest, inspiring and sometimes shocking, Pippa Latour's memoir shows how right the SOE were to assess her as having 'tons of guts'. The Last Secret Agent provides an important and compelling contribution to the record of women's active service behind enemy lines in the Second World War. * Clare Mulley * This memoir of the last SOE F section agent Pippa Latour is vivid and vibrant. Her own words echo with resonance across the pages, punctuated with historical context and fact. Pippa's story will remain in the hearts and minds of readers for a long time, keeping her memory very much alive. * Kate Vigurs, author of Mission France: The True History of the Women of SOE * A rare glimpse into the life of the last surviving SOE agent to have seen action behind enemy lines in France. Pippa's story is one of immense courage and personal sacrifice... a truly gripping and remarkable wartime service. * Helen Fry, author of 'Women in Intelligence' *

Vivid, honest, inspiring and sometimes shocking, Pippa Latour's memoir shows how right the SOE were to assess her as having 'tons of guts'. The Last Secret Agent provides an important and compelling contribution to the record of women's active service behind enemy lines in the Second World War. * Clare Mulley * This memoir of the last SOE F section agent Pippa Latour is vivid and vibrant. Her own words echo with resonance across the pages, punctuated with historical context and fact. Pippa's story will remain in the hearts and minds of readers for a long time, keeping her memory very much alive. * Kate Vigurs, author of Mission France: The True History of the Women of SOE * A rare glimpse into the life of the last surviving SOE agent to have seen action behind enemy lines in France. Pippa's story is one of immense courage and personal sacrifice... a truly gripping and remarkable wartime service. * Helen Fry, author of 'Women in Intelligence' * Extraordinary... enthralling. We may think we have read all we need to about the Second World War's secret war, but despite an army of histories and fine biographies, Latour's account is the only first-person memoir we have by a female agent within it. It's also almost certainly the last, as she was the only surviving France Section SOE agent - sent to ""set Europe ablaze"" - until recently, dying a year ago after finishing her book, aged 102. A darkly moving, marvellously detailed book. * The Telegraph *

Author Information

Following the war, Pippa settled in New Zealand where she raised four children. For decades, Pippa told no one - not even her family - of her incredible feats during WWII. In the final months of her life, Pippa finally decided to tell her remarkable story, written with the assistance of award-winning historical documentary producer and writer Jude Dobson. Pippa died in 2023, at the age of 102.

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