The Spy Who Loved: the secrets and lives of one of Britain's bravest wartime heroines

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expert skier and great adventuress” she submitted a bold plan to ski into Nazi occupied Poland across the Carpathian Mountains in winter. In May 2017, a bronze bust by Ian Wolter was unveiled at the Polish Hearth Club ( Ognisko Polskie) in Kensington, London.

On 15th June 1952, Christine left her hotel room ready to embark on a trip with her long-time lover Kowerski. In 1941 the Gestapo arrested them in Hungary and, following a lengthy interrogation, Christine reportedly bit her tongue so she appeared to cough up blood. In Budapest, in January 1941, she showed her penchant for stratagem when she and Kowerski were arrested by the Hungarian police and imprisoned and questioned by the Gestapo.Not long after their marriage they embarked on their travels which took them to Africa where Gizycki would hold a post in the Polish consulate of Addis Ababa.

While still in Hungary, she relayed important intelligence materials, some of which was related to Operation Barbarossa. In July 1944, she parachuted into France to join the resistance in the Vercors region as lieutenant to Francis Cammaerts – one of Britain’s top agents and the key leader in that area. Christine Granville, born Krystyna Skarbek, was one of the most remarkable secret agents of the Second World War, undertaking many successful missions and using her language skills, powers of persuasion, and sheer courage to save countless lives. Last year […] a Polish citizen named Kowerski was working with our officials in Budapest on Polish affairs. She became part of the Jockey network headed by Francis Cammaerts, Belgian-British in nationality and a former pacifist.Her few possessions including her medals (the George Medal, OBE and Croix de Guerre with bronze star) and her commando knife are now held in the Sikorski Museum in Princes Gate, London. She made contact with two prominent leaders of the French Resistance, Gilbert Galletti and Paul Hérault (soon to be killed by the Germans), and greeted the arrival of an "Operation Toplink" team which included her friends John Roper, Paddy O'Regan, and Harvard Gunn. They were smuggled out of Hungary and into Yugoslavia and then, hidden in the boots of two cars, they fled Nazi occupied Europe and eventually made it safely to SOE headquarters in Egypt.