The Spy Who Loved: The Secrets and Lives of Christine Granville

Christine did not live, or love, as most people do. She lived boundlessly, as generous as she could be cruel, prepared to give her life at any moment for a worthy cause, but rarely sparing a thought for the many casualties that fell in her wake.

For a once renowned woman who loved telling tales of dodging bullets, wielding grenades and subverting dogs trained to kill, Christine's story is, surprisingly, little known today.

Obsessed with Christine to the end, his last statement as he left his cell was, 'to kill is the final possession'. But Muldowney was wrong. He had never possessed Christine; the resistance burning within her was too great.

When he came he first covered me with his revolver', Christine write in her official report, but it was not long before Waem put the gun down on the table between them.

Asked by his private secretary, as they strolled in the gardens at Chequers, whether this alliance presented difficulties for such an arch anti-Communist, Churchill replied, ‘Not at all. I have only one purpose, the destruction of Hitler, and my life is much simplified thereby. If Hitler invaded Hell I would make at least favourable reference to the Devil in the House of Commons.