Call for the Dead
Quotes from the Book
He began the interview by asking what my hobbies were. "Incunabula and intercourse, sir." It slipped out and wasn't even accurate; I'd had little experience of one and couldn't afford the other.
2
There were only three things which SOE's agents could anticipate with confidence. That their parachutes would open, that their L-tablets would kill them, and that their messages from London would be accurately encoded.
1
I needed the company of another failure to make my own bearable.
The bloody-minded resilience with which they responded to disasters, especially those of their own making, their determination to liberate their territories no matter what, had been my first glimpse of what would one day be known as the Spirit of Resistance.
The need to justify and its sister frailty, the need to boast, were lethal weaknesses in SOE.
There is a special loneliness in unshared music, even if it was 'The White Cliffs of Dover'.
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About Leo Marks
About the book
In 1942, Leo Marks left his father's famous bookshop, 84 Charing Cross Road, and went off to fight the war. He was twenty-two. Soon recognized as a cryptographer of genius, he became head of communications at the Special Operations Executive (SOE), where he revolutionized the codemaking techniques of the Allies and trained some of the most famous agents dropped into occupied Europe, including "the White Rabbit" and Violette Szabo. As a top codemaker, Marks had a unique perspective on one of the most fascinating and, until now, little-known aspects of the Second World War. Writing with the narrative flair and vivid characterization of his famous screenplays, Marks gives free rein to his keen sense of the absurd and his wry wit, resulting in a thrilling and poignant memoir that celebrates individual courage and endeavor, without losing sight of the human cost and horror of war.
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Transcription
Kidnapped
The Crack-Up
The Luminaries
Slippery Creatures
Crossroads of Twilight