The White Mouse

By: Nancy Wake

Narrated by: Christine Jeffery

After living and working in Paris in the 1930's, Nancy married a wealthy Frenchman and settled in Marseilles. Her idyllic new life was ended by World War II and the invasion of France. Her life shattered, Nancy joined the French resistance and, later, began work with an escape-route network for allied soldiers. Eventually Nancy had to escape from France herself to avoid capture by the Gestapo. In London she trained with the Special Operations Executive as a secret agent and saboteur before parachuting back into France. Nancy became a leading figure in the Maquis of the Auvergne district, in charge of finance and obtaining arms, and helped to forge the Maquis into a superb fighting force. During her lifetime, Nancy Wake was hailed as a legend. Her autobiography recounts her extraordinary wartime experiences in her own words.©1985 Nancy Forward (P)2021 Bolinda Publishing

A truly admirable individual

After reading “Code Name Helene” and finding out the subject of that book had written her own autobiography I knew I had to read it. I did and it did not disappoint!
I enjoyed it for its subject matter and its forthright style. The story of how Nancy Wake, an Australian woman living in France, came to be an active resistance worker in WWII is really fascinating.

Her style is blunt, direct - it resonates as if a straightforward person were telling you about their experiences directly with no literary artifacts.

Nancy becomes a real person to the reader very fast and her matter of fact way of dealing with the story is bracing.

A truly admirable individual!

Amazing story of ordinary people doing the extraordinary for their country and in Nancy’s case her adopted country

The way Nancy’s account was read was bland and read too quickly without feeling; so for me, making Nancy sound a bit flippant and unfeeling about certain tragedies in her life, for example the death of her husband.

Better listening!

This is better than the novel about her! The true story and told in her words is a treasure.

Wonderful

So wish I could have known this fantastic woman. I hope to find out that there was a movie made of her life. If not ….. it’s not to late

Amazing story

I enjoyed hearing the amazing story of Nancy Wake and her work with the Resistance.

A Fascinating Woman!

I first read “Code Name Helene,” which I recommend doing first - but both books are a wonderful telling of this remarkable woman’s story!

Unbelievable story

Although I became a little confused by all the names, this is an action-packed description of Ms. Wake’s experiences with the French Resistance during WWII. The woman had nerves of steel. It’s a fast-paced story that I felt was sometimes a short on details. However, I thoroughly enjoyed it and found it fascinating. The narrator was quite good, too. I could easily imagine she was Nancy Wake.

Amazing woman but the voice was

Too too fast. And no up and downs. Just reading it through word for word. No expressions and just too fast. I slowed it down but didn’t help. Just that same voice. There’s so many other voices that are so much better. Why hers? The one who did Helene (her story too) was 100% amazing! No problem no bordem and pauses. This is just gooooooooo onnnn and onnnnn. I am so very disappointed. I really wanted to hear this.

She was so brave.

Good stories about brave women in WWII are usually remarkable. The French went through use so much during the war.
This did not disappoint.

History in her own words

Extraordinary autobiography of an utterly passionate resistance fighter: you get to know her through her honest words. The story is unequaled. My only criticism is technical: the reader is truly great but the transitions between paragraphs is non-existent - I expect that is an editing issue - which means you don’t have time to realize the next scene or topic is upon you. only chapters are clearly marked. For me, that was very difficult so I bought the book but it’s a very minor point in this riveting account.