brilliant insight

brilliant insight into a woman I never knew existed, well read with good indication through voices as to direct quotes

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1 person found this helpful

Simply beautifully told

Clare Mulley has a gift when it comes to writing biography, not just in the way in which she weaves the intricate lives of the people she writes about, she also makes you care about them.

I also cannot recommend highly enough, her next book “The Women Who Flew For Hitler”.

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Marred by the narration

This tells the story of a Polish born woman with a Jewish mother finds herself entangled in dangerous courrier work during the Second World War and it also recounts her somewhat chaotic love life. The story is interesting in itself and when the narrator contents herself to read the biography in her normal voice it is an enjoyable listen and she reads well. Unfortunately she finds it necessary to 'enliven' the direct quotes from various sources with a number of grating imitations of Polish, French and other accents which are very inaccurate and her impersonations of gruff male voices are extremely irritating to say the least. Whenever she attempts to characterise the female lead she also uses a sort of high pitched whine which makes listening unbearable.
I think narrators should retain a neutral tone when reading biographies. Had this narrator done so the book would have been a five star rating for me.

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6 people found this helpful

Amazing story

This book book tells the story of Christine Granville, Polish aristocrat turned spy during the Second World War. A fascinating story which was incredible convoluted and intricate as only a spy biography could be. Perhaps not a bedtime listen but one needing so we concentration.
Gripping never the less.

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Awesome Inspiring Woman

Interesting and exciting true story!
Written well with enough facts to back up the story but not so many it becomes a history text book.
My personal bugbear was the accents used in the narration as many of them I found cliched and almost disrespectful, but maybe that’s just me.

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poorly narrated

it may well be an interesting story and I still have many hours left but i'm just not liking the narrator.

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A Cairo lover known to me but not in the book

A well-read book I very much enjoyed reading. Utterly fascinating as Christine was an extraordinary woman. My parents and I knew one of her lovers from her Cairo days, an Armenian educated in Worcester and always exciting to be with. I remember well the day in 1952 when he came to our house in Paris to tell us of her tragic death. He too had worked for the British during the war in undercover work and recieved few thanks. Sadly I was too late to inform the author of his name. Great story though, very well written.

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A tedious narration of an enthralling tale

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

The narration became rather annoying and hard to follow due to Maggie Mash's insistence of using accents for reported speech from eye witnesses. Had she simply continued to read in her own voice, without the pauses that came before and after each 'voice', the story would have flowed much better.

Any additional comments?

Christine Granville, born Countess Kyrstyna Skarbek, was a Polish agent of the Special Operations Executive during World War II, and reportedly, "Churchill's favourite spy". A woman of extraordinary dedication, bravery and resourcefulness, she is a true heroine of the period, even if she may have been, ultimately, a little unbalanced.


I almost put this book down unfinished, but I am so glad that I didn't. I must have been about half way through before I finally engaged with her story and found myself really interested in what would happen next. The author seems to have had a rather academic approach to this book and, for me, there was too much background and heavy detail which made it seem as though Mulley was determined to ensure all of her careful and thorough research was included, at the expense of pace and suspense. On many occasions I became confused with the names of the many people involved in Christine's life and found myself jumping backwards and forwards trying put everything straight in my mind.

Christine poses in the wreckage of a bridge she and the French resistance had just blown up in southern France. © Imperial War Museum

It wasn't until I reached Christine's work as an SOE agent in occupied France, that the story came alive for me. Her work with the Maquis is the stuff of legend and this is where I found myself becoming engrossed, unwilling to put the book down, wanting to know what would happen next. The risks that she took on behalf of others are astounding and show how fiercely determined and addicted to danger she was. That she achieved what she did as a woman in what was most definitely a man's world is almost unbelievable and there are many, many men who owed their lives to her tenacity and her actions.


Members of the Maquis and British officers in the Queyras Valley. Left to right: Gilbert Galletti, Captain Patrick O'Regan, Captain John Roper, Christine Granville (Countess Krystyna Skarbek) and Captain Leonard Hamilton (Blanchaert). © Imperial War Museum


I found it unthinkably sad that after all her efforts during the war, Christine Granville was effectively cast aside by both the British government and indeed the very country she had worked for when the war came to an end. The bureaucracy that she had to content with in order to gain her certificate of naturalisation and subsequently her British Citizenship was appalling. The difficulties she had finding employment in post-war England due to her nationality and gender were unforgivable.

Christine came across at times as a spoilt child who always wanted, and indeed expected, to get her own way. She was a ferociously driven and independent individual. She was admired by men, who saw her grace and beauty, but less so by women who saw her as 'nothing special'. Indeed, many men felt more than simple admiration for Christine and it would appear that she was never lacking a romantic liaison or a bedfellow when she felt the need for one. And I suppose this is where the title for her biography came from. "The Spy Who Loved" is an unfortunate label for this remarkable woman. It sensationalises one element of her obviously very complex character - her promiscuousness. For a woman who was willing to sacrifice everything for the war effort, to support the allies and ultimately to see her country free, it seems grossly unfair that it is this element that has been showcased, presumably in order to sell the book telling her amazing story.

It is tragic that her death, almost innevitably at the hands of a reportedly jilted lover, in a hotel lobby in 1952 meant that she did not live to see her beloved homeland, Poland, become a free country.

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1 person found this helpful

A captivating story beautifully told

This is the story of one of the bravest, most amazing women in history. It is a story that needs to be known and has, for too long, been neglected. And the story is told beautifully. Clare Murray gets deep into the personality of a mysterious woman and brings the reader with her. It is a masterpiece of story telling. The choice of Maggie Mash to read the book was inspired. I cannot recommend this highly enough.

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A story about amazing courage.

This is an account of the extraordinary exploits of a Polish aristocrat who spied for Britain during WWII. She was beautiful and clever, and possessed nerves of steel and amazing courage. We should put up statues to such people who risked their lives in terrifying times, yet this woman was treated with far less than the adulation she deserved at the end of the war. As a Brit I was ashamed to discover how the "Establishment" dropped her like a hot potato once their need for her was over. I am sure a man would never have been so poorly treated, yet this brave lady's story was unknown to me before listening to this well-researched book. Excellent reading and never to be forgotten true story.

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5 people found this helpful