Kirjahaku

Born into privilege as the granddaughter of Queen Victoria’s favourite Field Marshal, Rotha Lintorn-Orman was destined for an extraordinary life. From the early days of the Boy Scout and Girl Guide movements to working as a driver and mechanic with the Scottish Women's Hospital in Serbia during World War I, Rotha’s courage set her apart. An avid motorist and close associate of Suffragettes, she adopted a masculine style that shocked polite society. Yet, it was in the turbulent post-war years that Rotha’s story took a darker turn. Admiring Mussolini, she founded Britain’s first Fascist party, aiming to preserve traditional values in the face of rising socialism and communism. But as more extreme factions rose, Rotha refused to embrace anti-Semitism, leading to a splintering within her movement. Scorned as a 'Boy Scout Fascist,' her political influence waned, and her personal life descended into addiction and scandal. In her final years, she sought solace in the Canary Islands, where she died, leaving little trace on the world she once sought to transform. This fascinating biography unveils the complex and often misunderstood life of a woman who lived on the fringes of history, driven by conviction but ultimately undone by her contradictions.

Anthony J Randall examines the resistance movement along the French and Belgian border during the first year of the Great War, culminating with the execution of Edith Cavell and Philippe Baucq in October 1915. There were others: Louise Thuliez, Henriette Moriamé, Jacqueline Van Til, Princess Marie de Croy and Jeanne de Belleville. They all sacrificed their freedom, if not their lives. Some were from the French and Belgian aristocracy, others were simple peasants; all were patriots. Some were rewarded, others returned to obscurity: all were heroes. Georges Gaston Quien plays his part in the story. A Frenchman for whom the war was a game and for whom the consequences of his actions deserve to be his epitaph.

Anthony J Randall examines the life of Joan Clarke and her role in breaking the Naval Enigma at Bletchley Park, alongside Alan Turing. An outstanding mathematician, Joan was the daughter of an Anglican priest and the granddaughter of the Archbishop of Melbourne. Having been recruited by GC&CS at the beginning of the war, Joan stayed with what then became GCHQ until well past retirement age. She worked on the unmasking of Philby, Burgess and Maclean, and on the decryption of intercepted Soviet communications during the Cold War. For ten years she lived 'very quietly' surrounded by the technology of the Cold War and the Early Warning systems installed on the east coast of Scotland, only to return to GCHQ in the early 1960s to take up a new position at Cheltenham, as though nothing had happened during the intervening years. Portrayed by Keira Knightley in the Hollywood film The Imitation Game, in reality Joan Clarke was the quiet woman of British Security; a role she played for forty-five years.