Agent Zo tells the incredible true story of Elżbieta Zawacka, the WW2 resistance fighter known as ‘Zo’. The only woman to reach London from Warsaw during the Second World War as an emissary of the Polish Home Army command, Zo undertook two missions in the capital before secret Special Operations Executive training in the British countryside.
As the only female member of the Polish elite Special Forces – the SOE-affiliated ‘Silent Unseen’ – Zo became the only woman to parachute from Britain to Nazi German-occupied Poland. There, whilst being hunted by the Gestapo (who arrested her entire family), she played a key role in the Warsaw Uprising and ultimately in the liberation of Poland. After the war, Zo was demobbed as one of the most highly decorated women in Polish history. Yet the Soviet-backed post-war Communist regime not only imprisoned her but ensured that her remarkable story remained hidden for over forty years.
Now, through new archival research and exclusive interviews with people who knew and fought alongside Zo, Clare Mulley brings this forgotten hero back to life, transforming the way we see female agency in the Second World War.
As the only female member of the Polish elite Special Forces – the SOE-affiliated ‘Silent Unseen’ – Zo became the only woman to parachute from Britain to Nazi German-occupied Poland. There, whilst being hunted by the Gestapo (who arrested her entire family), she played a key role in the Warsaw Uprising and ultimately in the liberation of Poland. After the war, Zo was demobbed as one of the most highly decorated women in Polish history. Yet the Soviet-backed post-war Communist regime not only imprisoned her but ensured that her remarkable story remained hidden for over forty years.
Now, through new archival research and exclusive interviews with people who knew and fought alongside Zo, Clare Mulley brings this forgotten hero back to life, transforming the way we see female agency in the Second World War.
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Reviews
Puts any number of espionage thrillers into the shade... Clare Mulley has given us a fine piece of military history, Polish history, and women's history, and all written in a gripping and thoroughly enjoyable style.
Agent Zo is the astonishing story of an extraordinary woman - for so long silent and unseen but now, thanks to Clare Mulley's forensic research and razor-sharp eye for detail, no longer forgotten.
In this gripping, forensically researched biography [Mulley] illuminates the awe-inspiring lives of Zo and her sisters-in-arms.... Clare Mulley is a consummate storyteller.
Clare Mulley tells the tale of the remarkable Elzbieta Zawacka with as much flair, passion and insight as her extraordinary heroine deserves. Recognition for Agent Zo's astonishing courage and immense achievements are clearly long overdue, but Clare Mulley vividly and compellingly brings her back to life in what has to be, until now, one of the great untold stories of the war.
A thrilling, consistently tense page-turner... [Zo] would have given the Mission Impossible crew a run for their money... Thrilling and powerful
Agent Zo is meticulously sourced and its novel-like narrative makes for a most enjoyable book
Agent Zo is a triumph. The deftly told life of this remarkable heroine helps restore women to their rightful place in the record of the Second World War. Absolutely essential reading.
Deeply researched and written with verve... thoughtful as well as action packed.
Page-turning ... fascinating ... poignant ... This excellent account is a tour de force
Clare Mulley skilfully weaves together Zawacka's personal story with the broad sweep of events.... [Her] fascination with the role of women in wartime intrigue is both infectious and mesmerizing.
Mulley tells this story of industrial-strength heroism with sympathy and feeling
Written with controlled, unsentimental eloquence and style, [Agent Zo] offers unique and original insights into the vital, if previously unsung role of women in the defence of their homeland.
Gripping, moving and important: an amazing and until-now neglected story of female WW2 heroism and secret derring-do. This tale of the resistance fighter Agent Zo is amazingly told and deeply researched by the excellent historian of WW2 espionage Clare Mulley.
A remarkable story of resistance, elegantly told
This is a terrific story, told with passion and authority, about a Polish woman resistance fighter of extraordinary courage and ingenuity. Not simply a page turner, this is an important addition to the literature of World War Two, a story for our times about female heroism which should be widely known