When: 6.30pm, Thursday 12 September
Where: Hatchards, 187 Piccadilly London W1J 9LE
Tickets: £10 (£5 for Biographers’ Club members) through Eventbrite here
Clare Mulley will be in conversation about her highly acclaimed new book Agent Zo with biographer Anne Sebba, author of Ethel Rosenberg, Les Parisiennes and That Woman.
Agent Zo tells the incredible story of courageous resistance fighter Elżbieta Zawacka, also known as Zo. During the Second World War, Zo was the only woman to reach London as emissary of the Polish Home Army command, before becoming the only female member of the Polish elite Special Forces, known as the ’Silent Unseen’. Following secret training in the British countryside, she also became the only woman to be parachuted behind enemy lines into Nazi-occupied Poland. There, while being hunted by the Gestapo (which had arrested her entire family), she took a key role in the Warsaw Uprising, and in the liberation of her country.
After the war, Zo was demobbed as one of the most highly decorated women in Polish history. Yet the Soviet-backed communist regime not only imprisoned her, but ensured that her remarkable story remained hidden for over forty years. Now, through new archival research and exclusive interviews with people who knew and fought alongside Zo, Clare Mulley brings this forgotten heroine back to life, transforming the way we see the history of women agents in the Second World War.
- ‘Deeply researched and written with verve… thoughtful as well as action-packed’, The Times
- ‘Meticulously sourced… its novel like narrative makes for a most enjoyable book’, The Spectator
- ‘Gripping, moving & important’, Simon Sebag Montefiore
- ‘A terrific story, told with passion & authority’, Anne Sebba
- ’The astonishing story of an extraordinary woman’, Jonathan Freedland
Clare Mulley is an award-winning author writing about women’s experiences during the Second World War. Her previous books include The Women who Flew for Hitler, The Spy Who Loved and The Woman Who Saved the Children. Popular on TV, radio and pods, Clare reviews widely, and has judged several book prizes. She is a recipient of the Polish honour, the Bene Merito, and the Daily Mail Biographers Club Prize.