Larry Loftis is the author of the book Code Name: Lise: The True Story of the Woman Who Became WWII's Most Highly Decorated Spy. The book is now available in paperback. Loftis, an attorney, also has written Into the Lion's Mouth.
Q: You note that you first learned about Odette Sansom, the subject of Code Name: Lise, while
researching other potential book topics. What drew you to her story?
A: I write nonfiction thrillers, which sounds like an
oxymoron, but you can do them if you have enough action, suspense, intrigue,
and cliffhangers.
The problem is that 99.5 percent of spies do one great
thing, or have one great or dramatic experience. If you want a nonfiction
story that can be crafted as a thriller, you need about 20 of those things ...
which means that I have to find the needle in the haystack. Odette's story
was one of them. As Kirkus Reviews said, "Every chapter ends with a
cliffhanger."
Q: How did you research the book, and what did you learn
that particularly surprised you?
A: A quality nonfiction book about World War II always
starts with the National Archives (Kew in the UK, NARA in the U.S.), because
that's where the official records are kept. After that, you basically have
to read everything ever written about your character and the people involved:
autobiographies, biographies, interviews, etc.
So for my book, that meant not only Odette, but Peter
Churchill, Hugo Bleicher, Major Buckmaster, and the SOE [Special Operations Executive].
And what surprised me would be a spoiler to reveal, so I'd
better not say.
Q: What does Lise's story say about the role of women in
espionage during World War II?
A: During World War II, the Germans began rounding up men in
occupied countries for forced labor in Germany. The SOE desperately needed women—who had far less chance of being
nabbed—to act as couriers.
The problem in France, however, was that Germans and Vichy
officials could recognize a woman who spoke French with a British accent ...
which in all likelihood meant that she was a spy. What they needed was the
one in a million like Odette, someone who could speak French without an accent.
But it was a terribly dangerous job. SOE couriers in
France had the second highest fatality rate of any Allied soldiers or operatives:
42 percent. Only Britain's Bomber Command had a higher rate (45 percent).
Q: What do you hope readers take away from the book?
A: As with most World War II stories, there were many heroes
in Code Name: Lise: Odette, Peter Churchill, Arnaud Rabinovitch (their radio
operator), Paul Frager (French Resistance), and Father Paul Steinert, a German
priest who ministered to Odette and Peter while they were incarcerated at
Fresnes Prison. All risked their lives to help each other.
In writing nonfiction thrillers, my goal is to educate
(about true World War II stories and events), while entertaining. Many
fiction readers will not touch nonfiction books because they find them dry or
boring; my hope is that they will read and enjoy my books as much as they do
any novel.
And for the hard-core nonfiction readers, I hope they will
plunge into the end notes to digest and enjoy the scholarship behind the
writing.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I have my third nonfiction espionage thriller coming out
in March 2021. It's about an American female spy who worked for the OSS
(forerunner of the CIA).
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: Many people ask me if I have met or talked to Odette's
relatives. Indeed, I correspond almost daily with two of Odette's
granddaughters, Nicole Miller-Hard (who lives in New Zealand) and Sophie Parker
(who lives in England). In fact, the paperback edition of Code Name: Lise has
an Afterword with stories and photos from them. They truly have been a
blessing to me, and are wonderful cheerleaders for the book.
On my website you can watch the piece that
The Today Show did for the book and story. It was particularly special for
me because Nicole brought her entire family over from New Zealand for the
taping, and she and her two daughters (Odette and Francesca) are interviewed as
well. Nicole also brought a number of family photos of Odette, which the
producers seamlessly weaved into the interview.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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