Christine Granville Spy

In Madeleine Masson’s book Christine SOE Agent & Churchill’s Favorite Spy, Masson sheds light and further helps to show who Christine Granville was and how she impacted World War II for Britain. Christine Granville was a beauty queen who turned into the spy who loved otherwise known as the Britain's Special Operations Executive and Churchill’s favorite spy. Born in Warsaw in 1915 to an aristocratic family, whom later was known to fall to the hard times, Christine Granville was born as Krystyna Scarbek. Christine Granville was a G.M., O.B.E. and Croix de Guerre, who was undeniably one of the most successful agents of World War II until she was murdered at thirty-seven years old in the London Hotel in 1952. She worked as a British secret agent

After Poland fell to Germany’s control in September of 1939, Christine came back from East Africa where she had been with her husband Jerzy Giżycki when the war had started and came to London to be a fighter pilot against the Germans eventually volunteering to be a spy along with her husband. When entering as a spy her name was changed from Krystyna Giżycki to Christine Granville by the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) as a way of protecting her identity as a British agent and spy, although after the war she would continue to keep the name. Before she even became a spy she had already prepared a plan. Christine planned to go to Budapest, Hungary, whom at the time was allied with Nazi Germany. She would then print propaganda flyers and dispute them within Poland for the people of Poland to revolt against the Nazis and escaping as refugees. She planned to ski into Poland via the Tatra mountain range. She also planned to take intelligence missions and help those in the polish resistance and British prisoners of war escape from the country. Although initially being skeptical of her plan, eventually the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) approved of the idea and sent her off to Budapest to follow though. Along with her husband, Christine had useful contacts in Germany which led her to Hungary before the end of the year. In Hungary, she helped with

After the war, Christine Granville faced some difficult times. She was unable to fully blend into the world of peace in which was upon the world now and could not trust those around her based on her experiences during the war efforts.

As a work of history, I do believe that in Madeleine Masson’s book Christine SOE Agent & Churchill’s Favorite Spy is not only an interesting read on a powerful woman, but also an accurate representation of the historical person as well. Madeleine Masson studied history and philosophy at the university of Sorbonne in Paris. She later gained a Ph. D. in philosophy before she went on to study art and humanities in Munich. Her degrees did have an effect on how this book is as a work of history because her credentials give her more creditably to write on historical events and people such as Christine