WOMEN IN INTELLIGENCE THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF TWO WORLD WARS - Helen Fry - My WOW review/My Book of the Year
If I had not seen this on X I really wouldn't have known about it and the wars of the last Century or not something that particularly interest me as far as my reading is concerned. However, seeing the posts on X I realised, that much like the Hidden Figures of the NASA space programmes, I knew very little about the role of women during those major conflicts. My view, shaped by various films and television programmes over the years were I suppose, that women played very much a supporting role to the men who were doing the fighting. Yes I knew the Soviets had women fighting, but they are the Soviets and they do things differently. Yes I knew a little about the women who were in the resistance, but very little and mostly from the Hello, Hello comedy show!
I have been reading books for over 60 years and in this book by Dr Fry is quite simply the best History book that I have read in all of that time. I really can not praise it highly enough, it is that good. The writing is clear and when terms are used they are explained. Where information remains secret, the reasons for not including it are also explained. There are some names that I knew, most however I did not and I certainly did not know any of those from the First World War, beyond the "famous" ones which most of us will know. The book would have been worth getting just for that. When it came to the part on the Second World War, I kept going WOW and wanting to share the information with my wife.
The stories of the Women were just waiting to be told and Dr Fry has told as many as she could in such a way that I felt I knew the person she was writing about. There are lighter moments in the book, not many but one that really stood out and was a laugh out loud moment.
Dr Fry covers all the areas of intelligence that women played a vital part in and as you read, you really learn how vital they were and without them doing so, the wars probably would have had a different outcome to what they did.
A first for me, is that knowing these were real woman, I came close to crying many times and had to pause my reading as a result.
Any one who reads this book, will be left wondering, if their female relatives had a role in Intelligence for as Dr Fry notes most of the woman are still unknown and their relatives probably don't know what they did during the wars, because they kept their secrets beyond the grave.
There is no hiding from the sexism of the periods and Dr Fry makes no attempt to cover it up by including some of the writings from that time. Yet at the same time, we also learn that in many cases the Intelligence Services also led the way for equality, just how far that has gotten is still debatable!
I have no hesitation in calling this MY BOOK OF THE YEAR AND I WOULD ADD MY FAVOURITE HISTORY BOOK. I CAN NOT RECOMMEND IT HIGHLY ENOUGH AND IT IS A BOOK YOU'LL NOT REGRET GETTING - I HAVEN'T DONE SO.
