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Between Silk and Cyanide: A Codemaker's War 1941-1945by Marks, Leo
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Book DescriptionOld Tappan, New Jersey, U.S.A.: Free Press, 1998. Hard Cover. Very Good/Very Good. Book summaryIn this behind-the-scenes look at Britain's top-secret Special Operations Executive, one of its major cryptographers tells of the monumental effort to make and break codes and shares stories of heroic operatives who worked behind enemy lines. A New York Times Notable Book of 1999.Media Reviews"[BETWEEN SILK AND CYANIDE] is an enthralling book, one full of an eccentric charm as well as fascinating, previously undisclosed details of the secret war waged in the occupied countries. It is also consistently informed by an understated kind of moral passion, and that makes it not only a fascinating memoir but an inspiring one as well." -- Richard Bernstein, New York Times "Marks is a natural storyteller who brilliantly links the highly technical issue of codes and ciphers to the fates of individuals." -- David Stafford, New York Times Book Review "The six hundred pages of BETWEEN SILK & CYANIDE, with the brief, intense era of secret heroism they document, pass rapidly, bouyantly, enthrallingly away. It is hard to come to their end without regrets." -- Penelope Mesic, Book Publisher NotesAs thrilling as a novel by John le Carré, this World War II memoir by ingenious cryptographer Leo Marks brings alive the codemakers and the agents they trained and communicated with in occupied Europe. In 1942, with a black-market chicken tucked under his arm by his mother, 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. 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. This memoir provides a unique inside picture of the extraordinary SOE organization at work and reveals for the first time many unknown truths about the conduct of the war. Between Silk and Cyanide chronicles Marks's obsessive quest to improve the security of agents' codes and how this crusade led to his involvement in some of the war's most dramatic and secret operations. Among the astonishing revelations is his account of the code war between SOE and the Germans in Holland. He also reveals for the first time how SOE fooled the Germans into thinking that a secret army was operating in the Fatherland itself, and how and why he broke the code that General de Gaulle insisted be available only to the Free French. Other Recommended Books
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