During World War Two the Special Operation Executive''s French Section sent more than 400 agents into Occupied France -- at least 100 never returned and were reported ''Missing Believed Dead'' after the war. Twelve of these were women who died in German concentration camps -- some were tortured, some were shot, and some died in the gas chambers. Vera Atkins had helped prepare these women for their missions, and when the war was over she went out to Germany to find out what happened to them and the other agents lost behind enemy lines. But while the woman who carried out this extraordinary mission appeared quintessentially English, she was nothing of the sort. Vera Atkins, who never married, covered her life in mystery so that even her closest family knew almost nothing of her past. In A LIFE IN SECRETS Sarah Helm has stripped away Vera''s many veils and -- with unprecedented access to official and private papers, and the cooperation of Vera''s relatives -- vividly reconstructed an extraordinary life.

Winner of the Longman-History Today Book Prize: A ''profoundly moving chronicle'' (Observer) that tells the story of Ravensbrück, the only concentration camp designed specifically for women, using new testimony from survivors

On a sunny morning in May 1939 a phalanx of 800 women - housewives, doctors, opera singers, politicians, prostitutes - were marched through the woods fifty miles north of Berlin, driven on past a shining lake, then herded through giant gates. Whipping and kicking them were scores of German women guards.

Their destination was Ravensbrück, a concentration camp designed specifically for women by Heinrich Himmler, prime architect of the Nazi genocide.

For decades the story of Ravensbrück was hidden behind the Iron Curtain and today is still little known. Using testimony unearthed since the end of the Cold War, and interviews with survivors who have never spoken before, Helm has ventured into the heart of the camp, demonstrating for the reader in riveting detail how easily and quickly the unthinkable horror evolved.

''It not only fills a gap in Holocaust history but it is an utterly compelling read'' Taylor Downing, History Today''A sense of urgency infuses this history, which comes just in time to gather the testimony of the camp''s survivors . . . meticulous, unblinking . . . [Helm''s] book comes not a moment too soon'' The Economist

During World War Two the Special Operation Executive''s French Section sent more than 400 agents into Occupied France -- at least 100 never returned and were reported ''Missing Believed Dead'' after the war. Twelve of these were women who died in German concentration camps -- some were tortured, some were shot, and some died in the gas chambers. Vera Atkins had helped prepare these women for their missions, and when the war was over she went out to Germany to find out what happened to them and the other agents lost behind enemy lines. But while the woman who carried out this extraordinary mission appeared quintessentially English, she was nothing of the sort. Vera Atkins, who never married, covered her life in mystery so that even her closest family knew almost nothing of her past. In A LIFE IN SECRETS Sarah Helm has stripped away Vera''s many veils and -- with unprecedented access to official and private papers, and the cooperation of Vera''s relatives -- vividly reconstructed an extraordinary life.

Winner of the Longman-History Today Book Prize: A ''profoundly moving chronicle'' (Observer) that tells the story of Ravensbrück, the only concentration camp designed specifically for women, using new testimony from survivors

On a sunny morning in May 1939 a phalanx of 800 women - housewives, doctors, opera singers, politicians, prostitutes - were marched through the woods fifty miles north of Berlin, driven on past a shining lake, then herded through giant gates. Whipping and kicking them were scores of German women guards.

Their destination was Ravensbrück, a concentration camp designed specifically for women by Heinrich Himmler, prime architect of the Nazi genocide.

For decades the story of Ravensbrück was hidden behind the Iron Curtain and today is still little known. Using testimony unearthed since the end of the Cold War, and interviews with survivors who have never spoken before, Helm has ventured into the heart of the camp, demonstrating for the reader in riveting detail how easily and quickly the unthinkable horror evolved.

''It not only fills a gap in Holocaust history but it is an utterly compelling read'' Taylor Downing, History Today''A sense of urgency infuses this history, which comes just in time to gather the testimony of the camp''s survivors . . . meticulous, unblinking . . . [Helm''s] book comes not a moment too soon'' The Economist