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Iron Book Group discusses "A Woman of No Importance" by Sonia Purnell: An Online Program

Iron Book Group discusses "A Woman of No Importance" by Sonia Purnell: An Online Program Online

Join us for a discussion of a non-fiction title about a spy in World War II. Book copies are available across from the first-floor circulation desk for a month-long checkout. The book is also available through OverDrive as an ebook (click here to access) or as an audiobook (click here to access).  

Library programs are open and beneficial to all. We invite people with physical and/or cognitive disabilities to attend any of our activities and will strive to support individual needs. If you need accommodations to participate, please contact one of our Inclusion Coordinators, Matt Krueger and/or Amy Holland, one week prior to the program.

Registration is required and new members are always welcome! This program will be held online using a communication app/website called Zoom. Register with an email address and you will receive an email with the log-in information for Zoom.

Book description: In 1942, the Gestapo sent out an urgent transmission: "She is the most dangerous of all Allied spies. We must find and destroy her."

The target in their sights was Virginia Hall, a Baltimore socialite who talked her way into Special Operations Executive, the spy organization dubbed Winston Churchill's "Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare." She became the first Allied woman deployed behind enemy lines and—despite her prosthetic leg—helped to light the flame of the French Resistance, revolutionizing secret warfare as we know it.

Virginia established vast spy networks throughout France, called weapons and explosives down from the skies, and became a linchpin for the Resistance. Even as her face covered wanted posters and a bounty was placed on her head, Virginia refused order after order to evacuate. She finally escaped through a death-defying hike over the Pyrenees into Spain, her cover blown. But she plunged back in, adamant that she had more lives to save, and led a victorious guerilla campaign, liberating 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. A Woman of No Importance is the breathtaking story of how one woman's fierce persistence helped win the war.
Date:
Thursday, October 12, 2023
Time:
3:00PM - 4:00PM
Time Zone:
Eastern Time - US & Canada (change)
Online:
This is an online event. Event URL will be sent via registration email.
Audience:
  Adult  
Categories:
  Book Discussion  
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