Shh! This Was All Confidential

While reading A Woman of No Significance, I checked 4 different times to see if it was fiction. Every time, though, I saw that it was, in fact, completely true. It’s written like a story, a tale of a young woman who, despite being told to get married and settle down, became a spy for the allies and helped win WWII. The story of Virginia Hall is like a treasure chest of twists and turns. As soon as I opened it, I knew I had found something I’d never be able to put down. Sonia Purnell’s A Woman of No Significance is a thrilling biography of American officer Virginia Hall.

Virginia Hall is an American hero. I say this because, although she faced countless struggles, including unimaginable sexism and losing her foot, she stayed patriotic and still managed to become a major spy during WWII. She first earned a job driving ambulances in France for the war effort, but she always wanted to help more. After the Nazis invaded France, most of her colleagues left. She continued driving through explosions and past guards to get help to the wounded. She continued doing this for a while, but she wanted to help people on a bigger scale. The author does an amazing job of describing her time as an ambulance driver. She describes Hall’s determination to help the wounded and make things right in vivid detail, talking about her interactions and the danger she was in so that the reader feels like they are there with her. 

Then, about a year later and after lots of struggle, she started working as a spy for the CIA. She was the first female Class A F-Section agent. She started working in 1941. Hall was always ready for adventure and would often risk her life for her cause. I find it especially interesting that she started working on the front lines for the war before the USA officially renounced their neutrality. She technically worked for the CIA, but she also worked very closely with the British government. At first, no one would let a woman become a spy because people thought she might be weak or let her emotions guide her. After a while, though, she got the job because she was a very unlikely spy. While reading, I was surprised that she actually got lethal pills. I always thought that was something invented by Hollywood to add suspense to thrillers, but they are very much real and will cause death in under a minute. She hid them in her prosthetic foot.

Virginia Hall is very influential to me. She was an amazing spy and faced adversity at every turn. Before she became a spy, she had to amputate her foot and had to live the rest of her life with a primitive prosthetic. She was rejected countless times by the CIA and others. She caught the attention of many men and could have lived a life of leisure anytime she wanted. Still, she saw that she could do good for the world and decided to keep trying to help. She drove through Nazi fire to help the wounded in 1940. She risked her life and safety every day as a spy, yet she didn’t give up or stop trying to help. She worked for the CIA until she was required to retire at age 60. Born in 1906, she died in 1982 at the age of 76. Virginia Hall played a critical part in WWII and is a good example of what it means to be courageous and selfless.