The Spy Who Loved: the secrets and lives of one of Britain's bravest wartime heroines

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She met Kowerski on her first mission to Budapest and they became lovers and soulmates for the rest of her life. Posing as a powerful British official, she persuaded the captors that a British invasion was imminent and they would meet a horrible death if they executed Cammaerts and the others. Digne was liberated by the American army two days after Skarbek rescued Cammaerts, Fielding, and Sorensen. French recognition of Skarbek's contribution to the liberation of France came with the award of the Croix de Guerre. Afterwards, she repaired her health by hiking in the Tatra Mountains, and working as a journalist in Cieszyn.

Meanwhile, the threat of war loomed large in the heartlands of Europe and not long afterwards, whilst the young couple were still in Ethiopia, Germany invaded Poland. Stefania Skarbek refused; she was determined to stay in Warsaw to continue teaching French to small children. Her father was Count Jerzy Skarbek, a Polish aristocrat, while her mother, Stefania Goldfeder, came from a Jewish banking background.The Spy Who Loved: The Secrets and Lives of Christine Granville, Britain's first female special agent of the Second World War. In Hungary, Skarbek encountered Andrzej Kowerski (1912–1988), now a Polish army officer, who later used the British nom de guerre "Andrew Kennedy". Her resourcefulness earned her a great reputation for bravery which was in evidence again when she successfully rescued resistance compatriot Cammaerts and two other agents from the Gestapo.

That is where she met her first husband, Gustaw Gettlich, an entrepreneur of German descent hailing from a wealthy Łódź family. Number 1 Lexham Gardens, Kensington – then the Shellbourne Hotel – was Granville’s home for the last three years of her extraordinary life.c] Another source of suspicion was the ease with which she had obtained transit visas through French-mandated Syria and Lebanon from the pro- Vichy French consul in Istanbul. The British Ambassador in Hungary, Owen O'Malley, and his wife, the novelist Ann Bridge, undertook to help Skarbek and Kowerski escape Hungary. Her assailant was George Muldowney, the obsessed man who had worked with her as a steward on Ruahine and was at the time of her murder a Reform Club porter. Apparently no fireworks ensued when he met Kowerski, and they persuaded him to go to Budapest to take over Skarbek's previous role as the contact point for the British with the Polish resistance. However, the living conditions there proved difficult, and Giżycki himself was mercurial, eccentric and despotic.

Skarbek addressed the Poles with a megaphone and secured their agreement to join the Allied forces, provided that they shed their German uniforms. Her superiors had suddenly remembered that she spoke perfect French, which is why she was airdropped in France under the name of Pauline Armand on 6 July 1944.This podcast looks at the results and effectiveness of the Special Operations Executive and the French Resistance in supporting the Second World War D-Day landings. To do so, she met with the commander of the local Gestapo unit, whom she was able to convince with the help of her personal charm and a bribe of two million francs. The history of which I tend to focus on is that of Polish history during WWII, born from my own familial story and one which I feel there is much still to explore. During the remainder of 1941, 1942, and 1943, Skarbek was given several small tasks by SOE, such as intelligence gathering in Syria and Cairo, including passing along information to the British on Polish intelligence and resistance agencies.