The flame of resistance : the untold story of Josephine Baker's secret war / Damien Lewis.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lewis, Damien, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Baker, Josephine, 1906-1975.

Baker, Josephine.

African American women dancers--France.

African American women dancers.

African American dancers--France.

African American dancers.

World War, 1939-1945--Underground movements--France.

World War, 1939-1945.

World War, 1939-1945--Secret service--France.

War--Underground movements.

France.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xxviii, 466 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (black and white, and colour) ; 24 cm

Other Title:

Agent Josephine.

Place of Publication:

London : Quercus, 2022.

Summary:

During WW2, Josephine Baker, the world's richest and most glamorous entertainer, was an Allied spy in Occupied France. This is the story of her heroic personal resistance to Nazi Germany. Prior to World War II, Josephine Baker was a music hall diva renowned for her singing and exotic dancing, her beauty and sexuality; she was the most highly-paid female performer in Europe. When the Nazis seized her adopted city, Paris, she was banned from the stage, along with all 'negroes and Jews'. Yet, instead of returning to America, she vowed to stay and to fight the Nazi evil. Overnight she went from performer to Resistance spy. In Agent Josephine best-selling author Damien Lewis uncovers this little known history of the famous singer's life. During the years of the war, as a member of the French Nurse paratroopers - a cover for her spying work- she participated in numerous clandestine activities and emerged as formidable spy. In turn, she was a hero of the three countries in whose name she served: the US, the nation of her birth; France, the land that embraced her during her adult career; and Britain, the country from which she took her orders, as one of London's most closely-guarded special agents. Baker's secret war embodies a tale of unbounded courage, passion, devotion and sacrifice, and of deep and bitter tragedy, fueled by her own desire to combat the rise of Nazism, and to fight for all that is good and right in the world. Drawing on a plethora of new historical material and rigorous research, including previously undisclosed letters and journals, Lewis upends the conventional story of Josephine Baker, revealing that her mark on history went far beyond the confines of the stage.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: ch. One A Traitor Unmasked

ch. Two An Honourable Spy

ch. Three From Paris With Love

ch. Four A Most Sensational Woman

ch. Five The Darkness Descends

ch. Six It Can't Always Be Caviar

ch. Seven The Enemy At The Gates

ch. Eight The Iron Resistance

ch. Nine Stardom, Her Cloak And Her Dagger

ch. Ten The Black Angel

ch. Eleven Invisible Ink And Secret Steamships

ch. Twelve On The Gestapo Hitlist

ch. Thirteen Abandon All Hope

ch. Fourteen Unbreakable

ch. Fifteen The Twelve Apostles

ch. Sixteen Dances With Death

ch. Seventeen Operation Josephine B

ch. Eighteen Operation Underworld

ch. Nineteen Captured, Imprisoned

ch. Twenty The Grim Reaper Calls

ch. Twenty-one Lighting The Torch

ch. Twenty-two Die Another Day

ch. Twenty-three Into The Heat And Dust

ch. Twenty-four Liberation Day

ch. Twenty-five A Song For Buchenwald.

Notes:

"American beauty. French hero. British spy"--Jacket.

Published in the United States under the title: Agent Josephine.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 399-410) and index.

Other Format:

ebook version :

ISBN:

1529416744

9781529416749

1529416752

9781529416756

OCLC:

1302002059