Code Name Pauline: Memoirs of a World War II Special Agent
To productive international relationships represented most dramatically by the French section of the British Special Operations Executive during World War II later by the will ingness of an initially reluctant British subject Pearl Corni oley to be interviewed by Hervé Larroque a French journalist and finally by the friendship between M Larroque and John Atwood an American initiated by their shared respect for Pearl Witherington continued because of their mutual willingness to communicate in the other’s language and without which this edition of Pearl Witherington’s memoir would not have been possible
I don’t like blowing my own trumpet I find it really difficult but at the same time I want people to know what really happened PEARL WITHERINGTON CORNIOLEY
EDITOR’S NOTE BY KATHRYN J ATWOOD What you hold in your hand is not a history book It is a piece of history History books are often written by people who were not there This is the testimony of someone who not only was there but who actively participated in what happened It is what historians call original source material Pearl Witherington was an agent of the Special Operations Executive SOE a British wartime organization that secretly trained and sent agents into Nazi-occupied countries during World War II Immediately following the war the British pub lic was shocked to learn that female agents had worked behind enemy lines for the SOE risking their lives and in some instances losing them in the fight against the Nazis Books were written and films produced about these women for a fascinated public who couldn’t seem to get enough Pearl became very distrustful of such endeavors after an author wrote a book that fictional ized her wartime work to make it seem more dramatic than it had been When the stories of other agents were deliberately altered in similar ways in books and films Pearl refused to give any interviews for many years xi
