In May 1940, Britain was at war with Germany and Neville Chamberlain was Prime Minister, struggling with a poorly prepared defence against Hitler. This book presents an account of how some troublesome young men risked political suicide and vilification as traitors, and paved the way for Winston Churchill to step in as Britain's saviour.

A tale of great enterprise and great fortitude, and of wonderful female solidarity and nobility of spirit, in the bleakest of circumstances. For decades after World War II, histories of the French Resistance were written almost exclusively by men and largely ignored the contributions of women. Many current overviews of the subject continue to underplay the extent and importance of women’s participation in the Resistance, treating the subject, in the words of one historian, as ‘an anonymous background element in an essentially male story’. The Sisterhood of Ravensbrück corrects that...