In view of the exciting and courageous exploits of Violette Szabo, this is a surprisingly bland and pedestrian biography, which, although obviously painstakingly researched, nevertheless relies too heavily on speculation and feels in many ways padded out, with much extraneous detail (about, for example, the workings of SOE which are not always relevant to Szabo herself). Overall I found it quite tedious at times and although I welcomed the opportunity to learn about Szabo and what she achieved, I never really felt that I came to know her. A somewhat disappointing and unsatisfactory biography.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ecopy for my Kindle.
Violette Szabo lost her life in a concentration camp towards the end of WWII. She was only 23 yrs. old and left a 2 yr. old girl behind at the time of her death. She was very courageous and little is written about her life and work during the war. Her life should be written and read in books, but unfortunately, this book was rather boring for me. Several interesting facts and events were listed in the book, but the book needs a lot of editing to make it a interesting story about a very courageous woman.

Violette Szabo

The Life That I Have



by Susan Ottaway

Thistle Publishing



Biographies & Memoirs , History

Pub Date 05 Sep 2017

I am reviewing a copy of Violette Szabo: The Life That I Have Through Thistle Publishing and Netgalley:

Violette Reine Elizabeth was born on June.26.1921, it is believed that she was born at a British Hospital in Paris.

In 1935 at the age of only fourteen Violette Bushell left school. In 1944 she was a beautiful widow and the Mother of a young daughter when she undertook two secret missions in France as a Special Operations Executive. Shortly after D-Day a few days into her second mission she was arrested and sent to Ravensbrück Concentration Camp. She was executed at the beginning of 1945.

I give this book five out of five stars!

Happy Reading!

Disclaimer: ARC via Netgalley
Earlier this month, Kate Elliot re-tweeted a thread about little known heroes, women heroes to be exact. And this is true. In America, the story goes women in the Second World War built the planes and nursed. We are usually not taught about the women who dropped into Occupied France, and if it is mentioned, they are British.
And we usually don’t tell. Recently, a student read a selection of Julia Child. He didn’t hate it, but found it a bit boring. It was about food after all, but tell that same student about Child’s wartime work, and he gets more interested.
Violette Szabo wasn’t an American, and she did have a movie made about her. Yet, today, she is not well known by history books. At least the ones used in schools. After the death of her husband, Szabo joined SOE and went into Occupied France twice. Her actions during both missions were heroic.
Susan Ottaway’s biography of Szabo is in many ways, a counter point to Crave Her Name with Pride. Ottaway was able to interview not only Szabo’s brothers but also her daughter Tania. What is presented here is a pretty good and seemingly fair biography. While detailing the heroics of Szabo, Ottaway weighs the validity of stories, looking at not only the narrator but also the possibility of such action.
At times, it does feel that Szabo is just out of reach, but considering the scant sources, this is hardly surprising. What is interesting is looking at what Szabo and her daughter think about Szabo’s work and the “morality” of a mother doing such duty. Ottaway also details life after the war and how the family was treated by the makers of the film.