Nancy Wake: SOE's Greatest Heroine by Russell Braddon

Title: Nancy Wake SOE's Greatest Heroine
Author: Russell Braddon
ISBN: 978-0752454856
Publisher: The History Press Ltd
Published: Dec 2009

Rating 5/5

After reading the child's Nancy Wake (Who Was...?) by Lucy Hannah with my children, I was inspired to delve deeper into Nancy Wake's life and her role in WWII.

Russell Braddon takes you by the hand and gently eases the reader into Nancy's reality of living and surviving during World War Two.  It is very obvious from the outset the Braddon has done endless research on the subject matter, in fact he had a lot in common with Nancy, he was also born in Australia, but for him, the war meant being a prisoner in Changi for four years.  Nancy on the other hand, at the height of  WWII, had around 7,000 men under her charge whom she led to sabotage the Nazis.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book.  The way in which Braddon brings the past alive, bringing the true heroines of the war to light is fantastic.  The quality of information within the pages is top notch, the fact that Nancy Wake completed so many successful missions as part of the Resistance, and the way in which Braddon takes the reader through each event was well done and researched completely.  There's a lot of action, as well as inspiration within this book.

Nancy Wake was the most decorated women of WWII and Braddon's biography of her continues to reinforce how much of an inspiration she is. A book I thoroughly recommend to anyone who's looking to be inspired and to taste history.