In her own words, the true account of the dancer, courtesan and spy whose legend has enflamed and fascinated men and women for nearly a century. Born in the Netherlands, Mata gives us her own erotic awakening, her many loves, the dangers that she faced, her imposture as a Javenese princess, the adventures she thrived upon... until her execution as a spy in 1917. Unexpurgated.
When Margaretha Zelle, a young woman living in The Hague, answers a lonely hearts advertisement she becomes drawn into a relationship with an army captain twice her age. After a hasty wedding, they depart for Indonesia, where the marriage collapses amid infidelity and violence. Seeking a new life, Margaretha returns to Europe and travels to Paris, where she adopts the stage name Mata Hari, reinventing herself as an exotic dancer. In her new role she attracts the attention of numerous admirers, many of whom are officers, ready to share their secrets with a woman of notorious allure and intrigue, as Europe lurches towards explosive conflict.
This harrowing WWII memoir recounts the tragic ordeal of a British couple separated by war and taken prisoner by Japanese forces in Sumatra. Captain C.O. “Mick” Jennings and his wife Margery were living in British Singapore when the Japanese invaded in 1941. Margery was on her way to Australia with other British families when their ship was bombed, leading to her capture in Sumatra. When Singapore fell in February 1942, Mick and other soldiers commandeered a junk and sailed to Sumatra. With a fellow soldier, he set sail for Australia in a seventeen-foot dinghy. But after an appalling ordeal at sea, he was also captured. Despite their close proximity, Mick and Margery never saw each other again. Though they managed to exchange a few letters, Margery died of deprivation and exhaustion in May 1945, shortly before VJ day, while Mick miraculously survived. Based on personal accounts and Margery’s secret diary, this outstanding book describes in graphic detail their attempted escapes and horrific imprisonments. Above all it is a moving testimony to the couple’s courage, resilience, and ingenuity.
Informative and innovative, this book focuses on the cultural images, realities, challenges, and contradictions for women in intelligence service in Britain during World War I.
Uncover the lives of 20 real-life spies who made it their mission to uncover the truth and collect secret information from their enemies… This book presents personal accounts and testimonies from spies all over the world and throughout history and brings key moments in history to life for young readers. This book journeys around the world and delves back and forth in time to introduce readers to a host of incredible spies who dedicated their lives to world of espionage. Meet Alan Turing whose work cracking the Enigma code helped shorten World War II by a number of years and save countless lives and let Hedy Lamarr prove to you that looks can be deceiving as she put her Hollywood glamour on hold to help advance radio technology. With accounts told through first person narrative, readers will feel like they're meeting some of the most infamous spies of all time. From those involved in reconnaissance, planning and logistics, espionage and development of new technology, this authentic retelling uncovers the secret life of spies in a unique and engaging way. With stylish illustrations from the wonderfully talented Alexander Mostov and informative and compelling text from Michale Noble, this is the secret life of spies.
The daring missions and cloak-and-dagger skullduggery of America's World War II intelligence agency, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), have become the stuff of legend. Yet the contributions of the four thousand women who made up one-fifth of its staff have gone largely unheralded. Here, at last, are their fascinating stories, told by one of their own. A seasoned journalist and veteran of sensitive OSS and CIA operations, McIntosh draws on her own experiences and in-depth interviews with more than one hundred OSS women to uncover some of the most tantalizing stories and best-kept secrets of the war.
Biography of the most infamous woman of the early 20th century, the Dutch courtesan and alleged spy Margaretha Zelle (1876-1917), - Mata Hari Mata Hari was the prototype of the beautiful but unscrupulous female agent who used sexual allure to gain access to secrets, if she was indeed a spy. In 1917, the notorious dancer Mata Hari was arrested, tried, and executed for espionage. It was charged at her trial that the dark-eyed siren was responsible for the deaths of at least 50,000 gallant French soldiers. Irrefutably, she had been the mistress of many senior Allied officers and government officials, even the French Minister of War: a point viewed as highly suspicious. Worse yet, she spoke several European languages fluently and travelled widely in wartime Europe. But was she guilty of espionage? For all the publicity Mata Hari and her trial received, key questions remain unanswered. These questions concern not only her inadequate trial and her unproven guilt, but also the events in her personal life. What propelled Margaretha Zelle, destined to be a Dutch schoolteacher, to transform herself into Mata Hari, the most desirable woman in early 20th-century Paris? She danced before enthusiastic crowds in Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Madrid, Monte Carlo, Milan and Rome, inspiring admiration, jealousy, and bitter condemnation. Pat Shipman's brilliant biography pinpoints the powerful yet dangerous attributes that evoked such strong emotions in those who met Mata Hari, for hitherto the focus has been on espionage, not on exploring the events that shaped her life and caused her to transform herself from rural Dutch girl to international femme fatale.
The quirky, strange and utterly sagacious meditations of David Caradine written during the making of Quentin Tarantino's contemporary classic in which Carradine played the lead role. When Carradine landed the lead role in Quentin Tarantino's new film, Kill Bill, it catapulted him into the Hollywood limelight. This journal captures his experience of being courted by Tarantino for the role of Bill and the subsequent two years spent making the two-part feature film with co-star Uma Thurman, nominated for a Best Actress Golden Globe. In its mixture of autobiography and behind-the-scenes diary, The Kill Bill Diary takes the reader on a fascinating and witty journey into the world of film-making and the art of an acclaimed director. Along the way Carradine describes the martial arts training required for the role, the experience of filming in China, working with Tarantino and falling in love with Uma Thurman while 'swinging a steel-tempered Samurai sword at her head'. In describing the pre-production, production and promoting of the film, Carradine gives readers a rare and wholly authentic insight into the creation of a Hollywood blockbuster and the experience of a screen legend.
A burlesque smorgasbord of international high jinks—the “biography” of a hapless, twelve-fingered, would-be assassin who lurches from Sarajevo to Paris to Hollywood to Chicago to Rio, leaving high-stakes chaos in his wake. Our hero, Dimitri Borja Korozec, is born in the late 1800s to a Brazilian contortionist mother and a fanatically nationalist Serbian linotypist father. Dimitri enrolls in a training school for assassins, where he excels—except for his troubling propensity for fouling things up at the last moment. Part Carlos the Jackal, part Woody Allen’s Zelig, part Inspector Clouseau, and part Forrest Gump, Dimitri is a schlemiel of an assassin and anarchist who can’t seem to kill anyone. He does, however, cause enough mayhem to help start World War I, spread Spanish influenza to the American continent, and unintentionally trigger various other significant events of the twentieth century by slipping and falling, misreading signs, and misunderstanding instructions. Along the way Dimitri runs into—and, sometimes, nearly over—a diverse cast of bit players: Mata Hari, Al Capone, Carmen Miranda, Marie Curie, Pablo Picasso, Jean Cocteau, Irving Thalberg, George Raft, and even Aleister Crowley make their appearances. Jô Soares weaves the lives of his characters in and out of modern history, creating odd synchronicities, uncanny coincidences, and the impression that this “biography” might almost be true. True or not, it’s a laugh-out-loud romp that provides an intriguing new perspective on the history and major figures of our time, blurring the line between fact and fiction—a line which, had he encountered it on his way to an assassination, Dimitri would most certainly have tripped over.
