SOE Books and Films

Nigel Perrin

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SOE Books and Films

This isn't an attempt to list every SOE-related book and film, but I have tried to include the most important ones. As far as books are concerned, I've left out general titles on the subjects of Resistance, the work of OSS, SIS and other intelligence organisations, special forces and so on, as well as foreign language titles. The film section is very short, but I will add to it later.

Each entry has a link to Amazon or other relevant web page where available. DVDs are easy enough to find, but a number of the more obscure books are long out of print, and you may need to hunt around for reprints and secondhand copies.

SOE Histories and Overviews

	Operation Jupiter: SOE's Secret War in Norway by Dorothy Baden-Powell (Robert Hale, 1982). Popular account of operations in Norway, drawing on author's recollections of working for SOE's Scandinavian Section. Despite the title, Operation Jupiter - the plan to invade Norway in 1942 - is only touched on.
	Forgotten Voices of the Secret War: An Inside History of Special Operations in the Second World War by Roderick Bailey (Ebury Press, 2008). Compilation of interviews with SOE agents taken from the Imperial War Museum's sound archive.
	The Wildest Province: SOE in the Land of the Eagle by Roderick Bailey (Jonathan Cape, 2008). History of SOE in Albania.
	Social Revolutionaries and Secret Agents: The Carinthian Slovene Partisans and Britain's Special Operations Executive by T.M. Barker (Columbia University Press, 1990).
	Special Operations Executive: Recollections and Reflections, 1940-45 by J.G. Beevor (The Bodley Head, 1981). Father of military historian Antony, Jack Beevor's experiences as SOE's representative in Lisbon make for the most interesting reading, but the rest of the book - devoted to short regional/section histories and SOE's relations with other government departments and the OSS - is also balanced and well written.
	Operation Freston: The British Military Mission to Poland, 1944 by Jeffrey Bines (Jeffrey Bines, 1999).
	SOE's Ultimate Deception: Operation Periwig by Frederick Boyce (Sutton, 2005). Account of how SOE helped to create the illusion of an anti-Nazi resistance movement within Germany in 1944/5.
	Set Europe Ablaze by E.H. Cookridge (Crowell, 1967). Revision of Inside SOE published in 1966. A popular history with varying levels of accuracy.
	SOE Agent: Churchill's Secret Warriors by Terry Crowdy (Osprey, 2008). Gives an overview of SOE organisation, agents' training, deployment, communications and covers some of the more well-known sabotage operations.
	SOE in the Far East by Charles Cruickshank (OUP, 1983). Official history.
	Special Operations Executive in Scandinavia by Charles Cruickshank (OUP, 1986). Official history.
	The Fateful Years - Memoirs, 1931-1945 by Hugh Dalton (Frederick Muller, 1957). Dalton devoted one chapter to the creation of SOE during his time as Minister of Economic Warfare, between 1940-42.
	Sabotage and Subversion: The SOE and OSS at War by Ian Dear (Cassell, 1999). First published in 1996.
	But For These Men by John D. Drummond (W.H. Allen, 1962). Account of the Rjukan heavy water raid.
	The SOE on Enemy Soil: Churchill's Elite Force by R.A. Fallick (McCleery and Sons Publishing, 2003).
	SOE: An Outline History of the Special Operations Executive by M.R.D. Foot (Pimlico, 1999). First published by Greenwood Press/BBC Books in 1984.
	SOE in France: An Account of the Work of the British Special Operations Executive in France by M.R.D. Foot (WHP, 2004). This is the revised edition of the original government history published in 1966.
	SOE in the Low Countries by M.R.D. Foot (St Ermin's Press, 2001). Official history.
	Assault in Norway: Sabotaging the Nazi Nuclear Program by Thomas Gallagher (Lyons Press, 2002). First published in 1975.
	Poland, SOE And The Allies by Jozef Garlinski (Allen & Unwin, 1969). Authoritative history, written long before the release of SOE's files. Includes details of flights and supply drops (additional statistics are given in the original Polish edition, Politycy i zolnierze, published by Polska Fundacja Kulturalna in 1968). Foreword by Colin Gubbins.
	Undercover: The Men and Women of the SOE by Patrick Howarth (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2000). A survey of agents and personnel written by a former SOE officer, covering their activities in Poland, Yugoslavia, Albania, Greece, France and the Far East. First published by Routledge & Kegan Paul in 1980.
	The Jedburghs: The Secret History of the Allied Special Forces, France, 1944 by Will Irwin (PublicAffairs, 2006). History of the three-man sabotage teams dropped across France, Belgium and Holland from June 1944 to support the Allied invasion.
	No Small Achievement: Special Operations Executive and the Danish Resistance 1940-1945 by Knud J.V. Jespersen (University Press of Southern Denmark, 2004).
	A Quiet Courage: Women Agents in the French Resistance by Liane Jones (Bantam, 1990). Concentrates on the stories of F Section's Didi Nearne, Andrée Borrel, Noor Inayat Khan and Odette Hallowes.
	Errors of Judgement: SOE's disaster in the Netherlands by Nicholas Kelso (Hale, 1988).
	Behind Enemy Lines by Rebecca Lawther (Pen and Sword, 2010).
	The Assassination of Reinhard Heydrich by Callum Macdonald (Birlinn, 2007). A thorough account of the origins, execution and consequences of the 'Anthropoid' mission, and the fates of its SOE-trained agents. The second appendix gives a useful summary of Czech parachute missions.
	The Secret History of SOE: Special Operations Executive, 1940-1945 by William Mackenzie (St Ermin's Press, 2000). The first comprehensive history of SOE, completed in 1948. Arguably the single most important work on the subject, which makes it difficult to understand why it's out of print.
	Canadians Behind Enemy Lines, 1939-1945 by Roy MacLaren (University of British Columbia Press, 2004) First published in 1981.
	All the King's Men: The Truth Behind SOE's Greatest Wartime Disaster by Robert Marshall (Collins, 1988).
	The Real Heroes of Telemark by Ray Mears (Coronet, 2004).
	Behind the Lines: The Oral History of Special Operations in World War II by Russell Miller ( Martin Secker & Warburg, 2002). Similar format to Forgotten Voices of the Secret War, with some non-SOE sources.
	Security and Special Operations: SOE and MI5 During the Second World War by Christopher J. Murphy (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006). Scholarly work that details the work of SOE's Security Section, its liaison with MI5 and MI6, and its handling of the 'Englandspiel' disaster and double-agent Henri Déricourt.
	Through Hitler's Back Door: SOE Operations in Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria 1939-45 by Alan Ogden (Pen and Sword, 2010).
	The German Penetration of SOE: France, 1941-44 by Jean Overton Fuller (William Kimber, 1975).
	Behind Enemy Lines: Gender, Passing and the Special Operations Executive in the Second World War by Juliette Pattinson (Manchester University Press, 2007).
	Secret War: A Pictorial Record of the Special Operations Executive by Juliette Pattinson (Caxton, 2001).
	Obedience to Instructions: FANY with the SOE in the Mediterranean by Margaret Pawley (Pen and Sword, 1999)
	Thailand's Secret War: OSS, SOE and the Free Thai Underground During World War II by Bruce Reynolds (Cambridge University Press, 2010).
	Kill the Fuhrer: Section X and Operation Foxley by Denis Rigden (History Press, 2009). First published in 1999.
	War Resistance and Intelligence: Collected Essays in Honour of M.R.D. Foot by Dr K.G. Robertson (Ed.) (Pen and Sword, 1999).
	F Section Special Operations Executive: Buckmaster Networks by Marcel Ruby (Pen and Sword, 1988). Unremarkable and sometimes inaccurate history of F Section.
	Special Operations Executive (Studies in Intelligence) by Mark Seaman (ed.) (Routledge, 2005). Seventeen papers on a variety of SOE topics. Contributors include M.R.D. Foot, David Stafford, Mark Seaman, Christopher Woods and Sir Brooks Richards.
	Britain and European Resistance, 1940-45: A Survey of the Special Operations Executive, with Documents by David Stafford (Macmillan, 1980).
	Secret Agent: The True Story of the Special Operations Executive by David Stafford (BBC Books, 2000). Introduction to SOE published to coincide with the four-part BBC TV series broadcast in 2000.
	Poland Alone: Britain, SOE and the Collapse of the Polish Resistance 1944 by Jonathan Walker (History Press, 2008).
	Secret War: The Story of SOE, Britain's Wartime Sabotage Organisation by Nigel West (Hodder and Stoughton, 1992).
	Operation Freshman: Rjukan Heavy Water Raid, 1942 by William Wiggin (Kimber, 1986).
	Parachutes, Patriots, Partisans: The Special Operations Executive and Yugoslavia, 1941-1945 by Heather Williams (C Hurst & Co, 2004).
	Apple of Discord by C.M. Woodhouse (Hutchinson, 1948).

Training, Transport and Equipment

	Secret Agent's Handbook: The Top Secret Manual of Wartime Weapons, Gadgets, Disguises and Devices by Roderick Bailey (Max Press, 2010).
	SOE: The Scientific Secrets by Frederick Boyce and Douglas Everett (History Press, 2004).
	The Secret Agent's Pocket Manual: 1939-1945 by Stephen Bull (ed.) (Conway, 2009). Collection of manuals and guides on self defence, disguise and sabotage, including The Partisan Leader's Handbook by Colin Gubbins.
	Agents by Moonlight: The Secret History of RAF Tempsford during World War II by Freddie Clark (Tempus/History Press, 1999). Account of the work of the RAF's 138 and 161 Special Duty squadrons, which flew clandestine missions to drop agents and supplies over Occupied Europe. Clark was one of 138 Squadron's pilots.
	Beaulieu: The Finishing School for Secret Agents by Cyril Cunningham (Leo Cooper, 2005). First published in 1994.
	Wings of Night: Secret Missions of Group Captain Pickard by Alexander Hamilton (Kimber, 1977). Having starred in RAF propaganda film Target for Tonight Pickard went on become CO of 161 Squadron in 1942, flying agents in and out of France by Lysander and Hudson. He was killed in 1944 during a low-level raid to liberate French resisters from Amiens prison.
	Inside Camp X by Lynn Philip Hodgson (Blake Books, 2002). See also Camp X by David Stafford.
	The Shetland Bus: A WWII Epic of Escape, Survival, and Adventure by David Howarth (Lyons Press, 2008). First published by Thomas Nelson and Sons in 1951.
	Secret Warfare: The Arms and Techniques of the Resistance by Pierre Lorain (tr. David Kahn) (Orbis, 1984). Gives detailed descriptions and illustrations of SOE wireless sets, codes and small arms. First published in France in 1972 under the title of Armement Clandestin: SOE 1941-1944.
	Flight Most Secret: Air Missions for SOE and SIS by Gibb McCall (Kimber, 1981).
	Winston Churchill's Toyshop by Stuart Macrae. The story of Millis Jefferis and his experimental department known as MD1, which produced specialised arms and explosive devices used by SOE. First published by Roundwood Press in 1971.
	Airborne Espionage: International Special Duty Operations in the World Wars by David Oliver (History Press, 2005)
	Secret Flotillas Volume 1 and Volume 2 by Brooks Richards (Routledge, 2004). Definitive history of the clandestine naval operations that transported SOE's agents and supplies across Europe and North Africa. The first volume addresses operations to Brittany; the second covers operations in the Mediterreanean, North Africa and the Adriatic. First published by HMSO in 1996.
	SOE Syllabus: Lessons in Ungentlemanly Warfare World War II by Denis Rigden (ed.) (PRO Books, 2001). Course notes reproduced from the original syllabus used at SOE's Special Training School 103 (known as 'Camp X') in Canada, instructing on subversion and sabotage, codes and ciphers, propaganda, German counter-espionage, personal security and other fieldcraft.
	Camp X by David Stafford (Lester and Orpen Dennys, 1986). The story of SOE's training school in Ontario, which trained Canadian and US agents from 1941. See also Inside Camp X by Lynn-Philip Hodgson.
	Moon Squadron by Jerrard Tickell (Alan Wingate, 1956).
	Station 12: Aston House - SOE's Secret Centre by Des Turner (History Press, 2006).
	Station 43: Audley End House and SOE's Polish Section by Ian Valentine (History Press, 2006). History of Audley End House near Saffron Walden in Essex, used as a Special Training School from 1942 for several hundred Polish agents.
	We Landed by Moonlight: Secret RAF Landings in France 1940-1944 by Hugh Verity (Crecy Publishing, 1998). First published by Ian Allan in 1978.
	Wanborough Manor - School for Secret Agents by Patrick Yarnold (Hopfield Publications, 2009). Wartime history of the SOE training school and a comprehensive listing of the agents who passed through it.

Memoirs and Biographies

	Approach March: A Venture in Autobiography by Julian Amery (Hutchison, 1973). Amery's autobiography covers his time working with Section D in Belgrade and his part in the 'Concensus II' mission to Albania in 1944.
	They Also Serve: An SOE Agent in the WRNS by Dorothy Baden-Powell (Hale, 2004).
	Spy Princess: The Life of Noor Inayat Khan by Shrabani Basu (History Press, 2006). See also Noor-un-nisa Inayat Khan by Jean Overton Fuller.
	Out of Night and Fog: The Story of Major Guy Bieler by Jacqueline Bieler (CEF Books, 2008). Biography of Canadian F Section agent who organised the 'Musician' circuit in Picardy. Written by Bieler's daughter.
	Secret War Heroes: The Men of Special Operations Executive by Marcus Binney (Hodder and Stoughton, 2005). Short biographies of SOE personalities including Gus March-Phillipps (leader of Maid Honor Force), combat training expert Bill Sykes, agents Georges Bégué, Percy Mayer, Denis Rake, Harry Rée and Benjamin Cowburn, and the author's father George Binney.
	The Women Who Lived for Danger: The Women Agents of SOE in the Second World War by Marcus Binney (Hodder and Stoughton, 2002). Portraits of ten women agents: Violette Szabo, Noor Inayat Khan, Paddy O'Sullivan, Lise de Baissac, Marguerite Knight, Alix d'Unienville, Paola Del Din, Christine Granville, Pearl Witherington and Virginia Hall.
	Colonel Henri's Story: the War Memoirs of Hugo Bleicher, Former German Secret Agent by Hugo Bleicher and Ian Colvin (Kimber, 1954). Bleicher was the Abwehr agent who pursued and captured agents Peter Churchill, Odette Sansom and Henri Frager. The text includes Churchill's, Odette's and Colvin's comments on Bleicher's version of events.
	Nancy Wake by Russell Braddon (History Press, 2009). First published in 1956. See also Nancy Wake's autobiography The White Mouse
	Specially Employed by Maurice Buckmaster (Batchworth Press, 1952). Collection of agents' stories as remembered by the head of the French Section.
	They Fought Alone by Maurice Buckmaster (Odhams Press, 1958). Second volume of Buckmaster's reminiscences.
	Solitary Confinement by Christopher Burney (Clerke and Cochrane, 1952). Burney's crystal-clear record of the course of his meditations during 562 days in Fresnes prison after capture in August 1942.
	The Dungeon Democracy by Christopher Burney (Heinemann, 1945). Published the same year as his release from Buchenwald, this is a short, vivid and arresting description of the camp and its horrors.
	Amateur Agent by Ewan Butler (Harrap, 1963).
	The Jungle Is Neutral by Freddie Spencer Chapman (Lyons Press, 2003). Extraordinary story of survival behind Japanese lines in Malaya. First published by Chatto & Windus in 1949. See also Jungle Soldier by Brian Moynahan.
	Of Their Own Choice by Peter Churchill (Hodder and Stoughton, 1952). Written in the third person, this is the first of three volumes of Churchill's memoirs.
	Duel of Wits by Peter Churchill (Hodder and Stoughton, 1953).
	The Spirit in the Cage by Peter Churchill (Hodder and Stoughton, 1954).
	They Came from the Sky by E.H. Cookridge (Heinemann, 1965). Biographies of F Section agents Harry Rée, Francis Cammaerts and Roger Landes.
	No Cloak, No Dagger by Benjamin Cowburn (Frontline Books, 2009). First published in 1960.
	Special Operations Europe: Scenes from the Anti-Nazi War by Basil Davidson (Gollancz, 1980).
	Setting Europe Ablaze by Douglas Dodds-Parker (Springwood, 1983).
	They Arrived by Moonlight by Captain Jacques Doneux (St Ermin's Press, 2001). A wireless operator for T Section from 1943, Doneux's autobiography captures both the strain and the boredom of working undercover in Brussels for five months, and describes his equally difficult journey back to London via Paris and the Pyrenees. First published by Odhams Press in 1956.
	War Diary by Hugh Dormer (Fisher Press, 1994). First published by Jonathan Cape in 1947.
	Inside North Pole: A secret agent's story by Pieter Dourlein (Kimber, 1953).
	My Secret Mission by Andrew Durovecz (Lugus, 1996). Durovecz was a member of the the ill-fated Operation Windproof team, dropped into Slovakia in 1944.
	The Shooting Star: The Colourful Life and Times of Denis Rake, MC by Geoffrey Elliott (Methuen, 2009). See also Rake's Progress by Denis Rake.
	Vasili: The Lion of Crete by Murray Elliott (Efstathiadis Group, 1992) Life of New Zealander Dudley Churchill Perkins, who was taken prisoner but escaped to join SOE's Force 133 and fought with guerillas on Crete.
	Heroines of SOE: Britain's secret women in France by Beryl Escott (History Press, 2010).
	Mission Improbable: Salute to the Royal Air Force Women of Special Operations Executive in Wartime France by Beryl Escott (Patrick Stevens, 1991). Another accessible collection of F Section stories, with short chapters on fifteen WAAF agents sent to France.
	Hide and Seek by Xan Fielding (Mann, 1973). Fielding served with SOE in Crete and later for the 'Jockey' circuit in SE France. First published by Secker and Warburg in 1954 (both editions are now very difficult to find).
	Memories of an SOE Historian by M.R.D. Foot (Pen and Sword, 2008).
	Six Faces of Courage by M.R.D. Foot (Pen and Sword, 2003). First published by Eyre Methuen in 1978. Includes sketches of SOE's Harry Peulevé and Victor Gerson.
	Double mission: RAF fighter ace and SOE agent, Manfred Czernin, DSO, MC, DFC by Norman Franks (Kimber, 1976).
	The Secret War of Charles Fraser-Smith: The 'Q' Gadget Wizard of World War II by Charles Fraser Smith, with Gerald McKnight and Sandy Lesberg (Michael Joseph, 1981)
	The Big Network by Roman Garby-Czerniawski (G Ronald, 1961).
	London Calling North Pole by H.J. Giskes (William Kimber, 1953).
	Accidental Agent by John Goldsmith (Leo Cooper, 1971).
	SOE Singapore 1941 - 1942 by Richard Gough (SNP Editions, 1987).
	SOE Assignment by Donald Hamilton-Hall (Kimber, 1973). Hamilton-Hall helped to set up the Auxiliary Units before joining SOE, where he worked with the training section and later supported operations in Italy and Greece.
	Venture into Greece: With the Guerrillas, 1943-44 by Nicolas Hammond (Kimber, 1983).
	Skis Against The Atom by Knut Haukelid (William Kimber, 1954).
	A Life in Secrets: Vera Atkins and the Lost Agents of SOE by Sarah Helm (Little, Brown, 2005).
	Xavier by Richard Heslop (Hart-Davis, 1970). Honest and straightforward memoir by the organiser of F Section's 'Marksman' circuit.
	Undercover Operator: An SOE Agent's Experiences in France and the Far East by Sidney Hudson (Pen and Sword, 2003).
	The Next Moon: The Remarkable True Story of a British Agent Behind the Lines in Wartime France by André Hue and Ewen Southby-Tailyour (Penguin, 2005). Hue's early adventures are followed by a drawn-out account of his experiences as an agent operating in Brittany after D-Day.
	That Drug Danger by Sir James Hutchison (Montrose Press, 1977). Hutchison was a head of RF Section and later led an inter-Allied mission in France after D-Day.
	A Pacifist at War: The Life of Francis Cammaerts by Ray Jenkins (Hutchison, 2009).
	Within Two Cloaks: Missions with SIS and SOE by Philip Johns (Kimber, 1979).
	The Thorns of Memory by Peter Kemp (Sinclair-Stevenson, 1990).
	Jacqueline by Stella King (Arms and Armour, 1989). Life of F Section agent Yvonne Rudellat.
	Flames in the Field: The Story of Four SOE Agents in Occupied France by Rita Kramer (Penguin, 1995).
	Knights Of The Floating Silk by George Langelaan (Hutchinson, 1959). Autobiography by a former New York Times journalist and one of the first SOE agents to arrive in France. He was captured but escaped from prison and into Spain in 1942. Now better remembered for his post-war short story 'The Fly'.
	Watch for Me by Moonlight by Evelyn Le Chene (Methuen, 1973). Life of F Section organiser Robert Boiteux-Burdett.
	Special Operations Executed: in Serbia and Italy by Michael Lees (Kimber, 1986).
	Behind Enemy Lines with the SAS: The Story of Amedee Maingard, SOE Agent by Paul McCue (Pen and Sword, 2007).
	Behind Enemy Lines: The Autobiography of Britains Most Decorated War Hero by Sir Tommy Macpherson with Richard Bath (Mainstream Publishing, 2010).
	From Cloak to Dagger: Special Operations Executive Agent in Italy, 1943-45 by Charles Macintosh (William Kimber, 1982). Macintosh was operations officer with No.1 Special Force in Italy and supported the partisans in the battle for Florence in August 1944. The remainder of the book follows the progress of later tactical missions and is heavy on operational detail.
	From the Red Army to SOE by L.H. Manderstam (Kimber, 1986).
	The White Rabbit by Bruce Marshall (Cassell, 2000). The story of F.F.E. Yeo-Thomas GC. First published by Evans Brothers in 1951.
	Between Silk and Cyanide: A Codemaker's War 1941-45 by Leo Marks (History Press, 2007). Autobiography of SOE's head cryptographer. First published by HarperCollins in 1998.
	Christine: SOE Agent and Churchill's Favourite Spy by Madeleine Masson (Virago, 2005). Life of agent Christine Granville (born Krystyna Skarbek), a Polish countess whose intrepid wartime career included working for Francis Cammaerts' 'Jockey' circuit. First published by Hamish Hamilton in 1975.
	Maquis: The French Resistance at War by George Millar (Cassell, 2006). Published only a few months after completing his mission as head of the 'Chancellor' circuit around Besançon, Millar's novel-like memoir is as much an intimate study of the resisters he worked with as a record of his own actions. First published by Heinemann in 1945.
	Road to Resistance: An Autobiography by George Millar (The Bodley Head, 1979).
	Carve Her Name with Pride by R.J. Minney (Pen and Sword, 2006). Biography of celebrated female agent Violette Szabó GC. First published by George Newnes in 1956.
	Ill Met By Moonlight by W. Stanley Moss (Folio Society, 2001). The story of the kidnap of General Kreipe by Moss and Patrick Leigh Fermor on Crete in 1944. First published by Harrap in 1950.
	Jungle Soldier: The True Story of Freddy Spencer Chapman by Brian Moynahan (Quercus, 2009). See also Chapman's own account of his experiences in Malaya, The Jungle is Neutral.
	Report on Experience by John Mulgan (Frontline, 2009). Reprint, introduced by M.R.D. Foot. Originally published by OUP in 1947.
	Sweet is War by Malcolm Munthe (Duckworth, 1954).
	Greek Entanglement by E.C.W. Myers (Hart-Davis, 1955). Myers' experiences of working with the Greek resistance during 1942-44, including his attack on the Gorgopotamos viaduct.
	Death Be Not Proud by Elizabeth Nicholas (Cresset Press, 1958).
	Aristide: Warlord of the Resistance by David Nicolson (Leo Cooper, 1994). Life of F Section agent Roger Landes, who organised the 'Scientist' and 'Actor' circuits in Bordeaux.
	Violette Szabo: The Life That I Have by Susan Ottaway (Leo Cooper, 2002). See also R.J. Minney's Carve Her Name with Pride, and Tania Szabó's Young, Brave and Beautiful.
	Déricourt: The Chequered Spy by Jean Overton Fuller (Michael Russell Publishing, 1989). Author's examination of double agent Henri Déricourt, developing material from her previous works.
	Double Webs by Jean Overton Fuller (Putnam, 1958). The first of the Overton Fuller's investigations into Déricourt's dealings with German security services. Revised and republished as Double Agent? by Pan Books in 1961.
	Noor-un-nisa Inayat Khan by Jean Overton Fuller (East-West Publications, 1988). An extended and updated version of the author's original biography of Noor Inayat Khan, Madeleine, published by Victor Gollancz in 1952.
	The Starr Affair by Jean Overton Fuller (Victor Gollancz, 1954). Supportive account of F Section agent John Starr's conduct as a prisoner of the Sicherheitsdienst at Avenue Foch, based on Starr's own testimony.
	Black Scalpel: A Surgeon with SOE by Geoffrey Parker (Kimber, 1968).
	Four in the Shadows: A True Story of Espionage in Occupied France by Eric Piquet-Wicks (Jarrolds, 1957). Dramatised accounts of four major resistance figures: Jean Moulin, Pierre Brossolette, Henri Labit and Fred Scamaroni (only Labit was an SOE agent). Piquet-Wicks was the first head of RF Section and he gives some brief autobiographical notes in the prologue.
	The Giraffe Has a Long Neck by Jacques Poirier (Pen and Sword, 1995). Poirier's autobiography covers his childhood and early resistance involvement with Harry Peulevé to becoming the organiser of his own 'Digger' circuit and liberator of the Corrèze in 1944.
	Operation Autonomous: With SOE in Wartime Roumania by Ivor Porter (Chatto & Windus, 1989). Mainly political history by the wireless operator of the Autonomous mission that parachuted into Romania in December 1943. Porter and his two companions were captured immediately but released after the overthrow of dictator Antonescu the following year.
	Rake's Progress - The Gay and dramatic adventures of Major Denis Rake MC by Denis Rake (Leslie Frewin, 1968). See also Shooting Star by Geoffrey Elliott.
	Miss Fire - The Chronicle of a British Mission to Mihailovich 1943-1944 by Jasper Rootham (Chatto & Windus, 1946).
	The Grand Prix Saboteurs: The Grand Prix Drivers Who Became British Secret Agents During World War II by Joe Saward (Morienval Press, 2006). Covers the careers of Charles Grover Williams, Robert Benoist and Jean-Pierre Wimille, who were recruited by F Section and operated the 'Chestnut' circuit near Paris. Only Wimille survived the war.
	Bravest of the Brave: The True Story of Wing Commander Tommy Yeo-Thomas by Mark Seaman (Michael O'Mara, 1997). See also The White Rabbit by Bruce Marshall.
	Full Moon to France by Devereaux Rochester (HarperCollins, 1977). Jaunty memoir by an American courier for Richard Heslop's 'Marksman' circuit.
	Child Of My Love by Sue Ryder (Harvill Press, 1997). Autobiography of the charity worker who was inspired by the bravery of the SOE agents she met before they left for Occupied Europe. First published in 1986, and partly based on And the Morrow is Theirs: The Autobiography of Sue Ryder published by Burleigh Press in 1975.
	Hannah Senesh: Her Life and Diary by Hannah Senesh (Jewish Lights, 2008). Senesh parachuted into Yugoslavia in March 1944 and was executed in Budapest eight months later, having been arrested at the Hungarian border. Aside from her diary, the book also contains her letters and poems along with contributions from her mother and fellow SOE agents.
	Our Man in Malaya: John Davis, CBE, DSO, SOE Force 136 and Postwar Counter-insurgency by Margaret Sheenan (History Press, 2009).
	Albanian Assignment by David Smiley (Chatto & Windus, 1984). A fairly brief and modest account of the author's experiences with Billy McLean and Julian Amery in Albania, which includes some criticism of SOE's political decisions. He also refers to his post-war training of Albanian agents, who later became victims of Kim Philby's treachery.
	Odette: World War Two's Darling Spy by Penny Starns (History Press, 2009). Biography of agent Odette Sansom.
	Baker Street Irregular by Bickham Sweet-Escott (Methuen, 1965). An important memoir by a staff officer who served SOE in many roles, in London, Cairo, Washington and the Far East.
	Young Brave and Beautiful by Tania Szabó (Channel Island Publishing, 2007). Biography of agent Violette Szabó by her daughter.
	Force 136: Story of a WWII resistance fighter by Tan Chong Tee (Asiapic, 1995).
	No Banners by Jack Thomas (WH Allen, 1955). The story of brothers Henry and Alfred Newton, former variety artists who were captured in 1943 and survived interrogation by Klaus Barbie and fifteen months in Buchenwald.
	Odette by Jerrard Tickell (Headline Review, 2008). Biography of Odette Sansom, first published by Chapman & Hall in 1949.
	Operations Most Secret: SOE, The Malayan Theatre by Ian Trenowden (Crecy, 1994).
	My War in the SOE: Behind Enemy Lines in France and Burmah with the Special Operations Executive by Harry Verlander (Independent Books, 2010).
	Who Lived To See The Day - France In Arms 1940-45 by Philippe de Vomécourt (Hutchinson, 1961). Self assured and sometimes caustic memoir by one of SOE's early French organisers.
	The White Mouse: The Autobiography of the Woman the Gestapo called The White Mouse by Nancy Wake (Macmillan, 1986). Wake's no-nonsense autobiography, published thirty years after Russell Braddon's Nancy Wake. Includes a couple of brief chapters on her post-war life, and the unsuccessful attempts to film her story.
	Moondrop to Gascony by Anne-Marie Walters (Moho Books, 2009). Walters parachuted into south-western France in January 1944 as a courier for George Starr's 'Wheelwright' circuit, and returned via the Pyrenees later that year. First published by Macmillan in 1946, and winner of the John Llewelyn Rhys Memorial Prize in 1947.
	Greek Assignments: SOE 1943 - 1948 by Michael Ward (Lycabettus Press 1992).
	Pinstripe saboteur by Charles Wighton (Odhams Press, 1959). Charles Wighton was the pen name of Jacques Weil, who ran F Section's 'Robin' circuit. Foreword by Peter Churchill.
	Foreign Fields: The Story of an SOE Operative by Peter Wilkinson (I B Tauris, 2002). Vivid autobiography by one of SOE's founding members, who served as a staff officer in Crete and North Africa, and dropped into Yugoslavia as part of Operation Clowder in 1943. A lot of detail taken from Wilkinson's wartime diaries. First published in 1997.
	Gubbins and SOE by Peter Wilkinson and Joan Bright Astley (Pen and Sword,1993). Life of Colin Gubbins, SOE's head from 1943.
	Pierre Lalande: Special Agent by Guido Zembsch-Schreve (Leo Cooper, 1996). Swiss-born DF Section agent who ran the 'Pierre-Jacques' escape line and survived Buchenwald and the infamous V-2 factory at Dora.

SOE in film

	Carve Her Name With Pride [DVD] Biopic of Violette Szabo starring Virginia McKenna and Paul Scofield, and directed by Lewis Gilbert. Released in 1958.
	Charlotte Gray [DVD] Adaptation of Sebastian Faulks' novel, starring Cate Blanchett as a secret agent in Occupied France. More memorable is the fifty-minute documentary "The Real Charlotte Grays" included as an extra, which features interviews with several agents. Released in 2001.
	Now It Can Be Told [1944] - Imperial War Museum Official Collection [DVD] Originally released in 1946 as a public information film under the title "School for Danger", it features two real-life agents (Harry Rée and Jacqueline Nearne) and locations used by SOE personnel.
	Odette [1950] Anna Neagle stars as French agent Odette Sansom, with Trevor Howard as Peter Churchill and Peter Ustinov as Alex Rabinovitch. Maurice Buckmaster plays himself, and Peter Churchill makes a brief cameo appearance.
	The Sorrow and the Pity [DVD] Released in 1969 (and banned in France until 1981), this two-part documentary concentrates on the testimony of former resisters and collaborators living in Clermont-Ferrand during the Occupation, but includes footage of Maurice Buckmaster and a short interview with former agent Denis Rake.