Overview

From the biblical days of Delilah to mdern times there have been women who ventured at their peril as spies into the conflicts of armed men. Recounted in this fascinating history are dramatic incidents of feminine espionage in the United States and abroad from the time of the American Revolution to the present day. Learn about Lydia Darragh who alerted General Washington to the British plans for suprise attack on Valley Forge. Who was the agent in New York during World War II who used a doll repair shop to communicate with Japan? And who was the only woman in England to win the George Cross?

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9780819184863

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Reviews

Modern Delilahs of all shapes, sizes and psyches pass in heroic review here. They are sketched from the Revolutionary War on with the demure Lydia Dauragh aiding a more-or-less indifferent Washington (he considered such activities scarcely feminine ). But women were better appreciated in later struggles with the efforts of the flamboyant Southern Belle Boyd challenged by the North's inconspicuous spinster Elizabeth van Lew in the Civil War. World War I brought the wily Louise de Bettignies and her continental underground communications system known as the Alice Service, an operation that helped cost the Kaiser his crown. It also saw Velvalee Dickinson in the Japanese camp, sending messages through her chic doll's boutique in New York. Mata Hari is given short shrift here but a larger heroine is brought to light, one Milada Horakova, Czechoslovakian resistance leader who survived incredible torture under the Gestapo only to die a victim of post-war Communism. Mostly sketches but readable epitaphs to women who put their convictions on the firing line. (Kirkus Reviews)

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