FREE SHE LANDED BY MOONLIGHT: THE STORY OF SECRET AGENT PEARL WITHERINGTON: THE REAL CHARLOTTE GRAY PDF Carole Seymour-Jones | 432 pages | 01 May 2014 | Hodder & Stoughton General Division | 9781444724622 | English | London, United Kingdom She landed by moonlight: The real Charlotte Gray | UK | News | The She Landed by Moonlight: The Story of Secret Agent Pearl Witherington: The Real Charlotte Gray who were active members of the Special Operations Executive, created by Churchill in to spark revolt in Germany's conquered territories, hold an enduring fascination. There have been major biographies of intelligence officers Vera Atkins, Violette Szabo and Christine Granville a Polish agent She Landed by Moonlight: The Story of Secret Agent Pearl Witherington: The Real Charlotte Gray recent years while Sebastian Faulks's novel and film, Charlotte Gray, helped popularise their image. The interest partly stems from a desire to put women back into history, especially as the accomplishments of these SOE agents who played a leading role in resistance networks was so blatantly hushed up after the war. Get money off this book at the Independent bookshop. But their stories are also emblematic of how women who have proven themselves at the most masculine of tests — engaging in active warfare — are later sidelined. One of the most moving passages in Carole Seymour-Jones's new biography about Pearl Witherington, the Anglo-French agent who commanded a ragged crew of almost 4, men in occupied France and who had a million-franc bounty on her head, describes her reaction to being offered an MBE civil for her efforts. As Pearl tartly commented, "There was nothing civil about what I did. Seymour-Jones' s meticulous biography is full of such revelations. Pearl finds herself fighting to be taken seriously by her military superiors, pressing for equal funding and better resources for her "circuit" and, later, for public recognition. That women were recruited into the SOE in and sent on dangerous missions was kept secret from the British public for fear of an outcry. The women received less pay, lower pensions and were refused proper military recognition. During training, the SOE women made the first parachute jumps alongside the men "to shame the men into not showing their own terror". The men who made the requisite jumps were awarded with RAF parachute wings; Pearl was not. Such slights rankled for Pearl Witherington, but her childhood taught her tough emotional truths that prepared her well for combat. She was the eldest daughter of four, born to English parents in Paris; her father Wallace, an alcoholic, lost the family's money. From an early age, it was her job to drag him out of bars, negotiate with shopkeepers and dodge debt collectors. Her mother Gee was both hearing impaired and "an inadequate mother", a situation made worse when Wallace died in Pearl supported the family through secretarial work, landing a post at the British embassy before the war which provided her with valuable contacts. As she would later say, her childhood experiences were "what made me a fighter in my life". Even before Pearl was recruited into the SOE, she drew on that fighting spirit to get her mother and sisters out of occupied France, a difficult task for the increasingly frail Gee. Once they arrived in London, like many female soldiers before her, Pearl longed to become involved in the action. Her family, who thought she had joined the FANY a nursing unitknew nothing of her real job until after the war. Whatever drove her, Pearl demonstrated enormous moral and physical courage which is illuminated throughout the biography in small, telling detail. When Pearl was dropped into France, her SOE trainers took great care to ensure her authenticity, even scenting her chocolate with garlic and issuing her with a French- bought red Lancome lipstick. When Pearl found it difficult to find accommodation without arousing suspicion as a single woman, she spent her first three months sleeping on unheated, overcrowded trains. Delivering messages across a sprawling network in central France, she could only allow herself the luxury of cat- naps for fear of muttering English words in her sleep. Despite HQ discriminating against Pearl's "Wrestler" circuit, providing it with less money and fewer arms than those run by male organisers, it proved extremely effective. Venerated by her volunteers, Pearl and her network, working alongside one other, cut the train line running between Paris and Toulouse times. This delayed the German advance to Normandy by a fortnight, which enabled the Allies to secure the Normandy bridgehead on D-Day. She arranged weapons drops, distributed explosives and escorted teams of resistance fighters attacking German targets. If Pearl's post-war life — in she was reunited with Henri and they married in — paled into the pedestrian, she fared better than many other SOE women in the field, who endured torture and concentration camps or were executed. Seymour-Jones has undertaken exhaustive research on Pearl Witherington's life but departs from conventional biographical writing, which sets this work apart from her ground-breaking biographies of Vivienne Eliot and jointly Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre. Dialogue is recreated, scenes are set and we are given a character's thoughts, feelings and reactions. While it's understandable that biographers and other history writers are under increasing pressure to produce colourful narratives, this style dangerously strays into the territory of fiction. Pearl's story seems so well-documented and her exploits so extraordinary, that perhaps the reader could have been left to visualise her internal world without such prompts. Call me a Luddite, but I would have been happy with a set of extensive footnotes and allowed to imagine the rest. Already have an account? Log in here. Independent Premium Comments can be posted by members of our membership scheme, Independent Premium. It allows our most engaged readers to debate the big issues, share their own experiences, discuss real-world solutions, and more. Our journalists will try to respond by joining the threads when they can to create She Landed by Moonlight: The Story of Secret Agent Pearl Witherington: The Real Charlotte Gray true meeting of independent Premium. 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Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today. Show 0 comments. Sign up Already have an account? Update preferences. Comments Share your thoughts and debate the big issues. Already registered? Log in. Cancel Delete comment. Cancel Flag comment. Independent Premium comments 0 Independent Premium comments Open comments 0 open comments. Join the discussion. Join the discussion Create a commenting name to join the debate Submit. Reply Delete 0 0. Cancel Post. Forgotten your password? Want an ad-free experience? Subscribe to Independent Premium. View offers. The lowest-priced brand-new, unused, unopened, undamaged item in its original packaging where packaging is applicable. Packaging should be the same as what is found in a retail store, unless the item is handmade or was packaged by the manufacturer in non-retail packaging, such as an unprinted box or plastic bag. See details for additional description. What does this price mean? This is the price excluding postage and handling fees a seller has provided at which the same item, or one that is nearly identical to it, is being She Landed by Moonlight: The Story of Secret Agent Pearl Witherington: The Real Charlotte Gray for sale or She Landed by Moonlight: The Story of Secret Agent Pearl Witherington: The Real Charlotte Gray been offered for sale in the recent past. The price may be the seller's own price elsewhere or another seller's price. The "off" amount and percentage simply signifies the calculated difference between the seller-provided price for the item elsewhere and the seller's price on eBay. The story is fascinating. Pearl Witherington was an amazing woman, and I appreciated the history lessons in addition to her personal story. I did have to skim through some parts, where the narrative drive stalled in minutiae. I respect the thoroughness of Seymour-Jones' research, but some of the details were beyond my interest. Verified purchase: Yes Condition: Pre-owned. Skip to main content. About this product. Stock photo. Brand new: Lowest price The lowest- priced brand-new, unused, unopened, undamaged item in its original packaging where packaging is applicable. See all 2 brand new listings. Buy It Now. Add to cart. Like Sebastian Faulks' heroine, Charlotte Gray, Pearl had a dual mission: to fight for her beloved, broken France and to find her lost love. Pearl's lover was a Parisian parfumier turned soldier, Henri Cornioley, who had been taken prisoner while serving in the French Logistics Corps and subsequently escaped from his German POW camp.