Patrick Marnham

A very well researched and detailed analysis of how the PROSPER SOE circuit in France was betrayed together with Jean Moulin, the Gaulist resistance leader.The author makes a compelling case against the two potential culprits and those who were secretly controlling them to deceive the Germans about allied invasion plans.

This a complex tale well told.
In 1943 a senior leader of de Gaulle's force in occupied France was captured by the Germans and died. At almost the same time, a resistance cell supported/run by the secret service intheUK was destroyed by the SS. The book suggests that the two events are related, and are likely to have been part of a deception plan to convince the German command that an allied landing in France was imminent.
In the end, the available information is incomplete. I think the author show more is likely to be right, but some doubt remains.
But, regardless of the big issue, the book gives the reader an idea of the successes, and the dreadful failures of British intelligence.
In the Netherlands a wireless operator was captured by the Germans who proceeded to "run" him to fool the British. Radio messages at the time included a version of what we might now term 'two factor authentication' - an initial code, and the a second 'true identity check' in the body of the message. The captured officer omitted the second check - which should have been read as an alert that he had been compromised. The Secret Service in London instead took it as an understandable error. As a result, in the next 10 months 43 of 48 officers dropped into the Netherlands were captured by the Germans on arrival (40 of whom died in German hands), and all 544 containers of stores (weapons and explosives) flown in were captured by the Germans. Unbelievable incompetence!
Coincidentally, the same happened again at the time of the 1943 arrests in France - this time the buffoon in charge in London sent an immediate reply to the compromised officer in France telling him of his security breach and telling him that it should never happen again - clearly informing the Germans of the officer's attempt to warn of his capture.
Overall, the book is a fascinating insight into a terrible aspect of 20th century warfare. show less

A somewhat odd book, in that about half of it is an account of the disappearance of Lord Lucan ca. 1974 in the wake of the murder of the nanny of his children and a violent assault on his estranged wife, and half of it is an extended account of the libel litigation that engulfed Private Eye, the muckracking magazine that employed the author, that arose out of what was, frankly, a tangential issue in the case. What salvages the book in the end is a rather thoughtful analysis of the relative show more guilt or innocence of Lord Lucan, with a theory that strikes a reader as reasonable and plausible. show less

I've finished up the biography [Wild Mary: A life of Mary Wesley] by [[Patrick Marnham]] which, for some reason I had a need to tear through quickly. I wasn't reading it for the usual reasons, that is, simply curious about the period or the life as a whole. I was reading as a writer and a woman, who herself hasn't for one reason and another, moved very swiftly, and found herself wondering very much "How the heck did this happen?" Namely, how does it happen that a person only gets around to show more writing and publishing ten books between the ages of 70 and 81, and damned excellent books to boot? I found my answer. One part of it is that she was busy. With lovers, with children, with trying intra-family relationships that took up a lot of bandwidth, with moving constantly, and with trying to make a living however she could. She also lacked discipline entirely, due to having had minimal schooling, and I think she had to learn it inch by inch. Mary literally had no center to her life, no stable core of either people or places that she could rely on to welcome her, to call home. She, in fact, labored mightily to become a center herself, for her 3 boys and her second husband, Eric Siepman, whom she adored although his charms are opaque at this distance.
Towards the end of the biography Marnham lists Mary's recurring 'themes' in a footnote: "The four major themes in her ten novels were ambiguity in personal identity, the dysfunctional family, marital rape and the affirmation of illegitimacy. Among other themes that appear repeatedly are incest, revenge, suicide by drowning, parental interference, the everlasting ideal house, parental snobbery or racism, and the elderly seducer." A footnote!
Which leads me to my thoughts about not Mary Wesley's life but [[Patrick Marnham]]'s biography of her. It is an 'official' one; he had access to papers and permission from the family although it doesn't seem to me he held back a lot of messy details (she wrote an autobiography that appears to still exist, never published, that he clearly read, but is even now, maybe too close to the bone for friends and family still living). All the information you could want is presented in a straightforward manner, but if Mary Wesley's life weren't so extremely lively it would show more, I think, that the biography has a flat tone, a lack of insight into or sensitivity or even enthusiasm for Mary, the personality. The list of themes in a footnote sums up exactly everything I found flat about the work itself. He lets Mary do all the work, so to speak, which is exactly what people always did, it is only her adventures and energy that keep the book absorbing.
There are also several places where Marnham repeats something he wrote in an earlier chapter word for word, although to be sure, he is approaching whatever it is from a slightly different angle. It happened enough that it felt like filler.
One last comment, Marnham doesn't go anywhere near the topic so dear to my mind, "Why so late?" But the clues are there. Besides the basic chaos she lived in, her second husband Eric, also a writer, had serious mood problems and for a variety of reasons never succeeded in his career; there is little doubt in my mind that Mary held herself back, consciously or unconsciously, for his sake. I don't think that succeeding where he didn't was acceptable to her. To her, mind you, I am not judging Eric. This issue is an example of a topic that a braver biographer would explore. In any event, I bring this up as an example of what I found to be 'missing': the answer to my question, "How did this happen?" By seventy the degree of pent-up ideas was like a raging torrent, once the dam was opened, there was no stopping it until she was done. Fortunately for us, she was robust and energetic enough to do the work so late in life. A guarded recommendation, since there is nothing better. Also, it is important to keep in mind I had an agenda and expectations, others might truly enjoy reading about her life, which is of itself, absorbing. ***1/2. show less