“Agent Zo: The Untold Story of a Fearless World War II Resistance Fighter” – an evening with the author Clare Mulley

Join us for the evening with Clare Mulley, an award-winning author from Great Britain, as she discusses her new book: “Agent Zo,” which tells a true story about Elżbieta Zawacka, the only female member of the Polish elite special forces – the ‘Silent Unseen’,  and the only woman to parachute from Britain to enemy-occupied Poland to play a vital role in the most significant organized act of defiance against Nazi German occupation.

AGENT ZO tells the story of courageous resistance fighter Elżbieta Zawacka, aka Elizabeth Watson but best known as ‘Zo’. During the Second World War, Zo was the only woman to reach London as an emissary of the Polish Home Army command, bringing vital microfilm. As the only female member of the Polish elite special forces – the ‘Silent Unseen’ – she also became the only woman to parachute from Britain to Nazi-German-occupied Poland. There, while being hunted by the Gestapo, who arrested her entire family, she took a crucial role in the most significant organized act of defiance against Nazi Germany – the Warsaw Uprising.

After the war, Zo was demobbed as one of the most highly decorated Polish women in history. Yet the Soviet-backed communist regime not only imprisoned her but also ensured that her remarkable story remained hidden. Now, through new archival research and exclusive interviews with people who knew and fought alongside Zo, Clare Mulley brings this forgotten heroine back to life.

‘Deeply researched and written with verve. Thoughtful as well as action-packed’, The Times (London)

‘Industrial strength heroism, told with sympathy & feeling’, The Literary Review

‘Page-turning… Fascinating… Poignant… This excellent account is a tour de force’, Military History Matters

‘Gripping, moving and important: an amazing and until-now neglected story of female WW2 heroism and secret derring-do. This tale of the resistance fighter Agent Zo is amazingly told and deeply researched by the excellent historian of WW2 espionage Clare Mulley’, Simon Sebag Montefiore, The World, a Family History; Young Stalin; Jerusalem

‘A terrific story, told with passion and authority. Not simply a page-turner, this is an important addition to the literature of WW2, a story for our times about female heroism’, Anne Sebba, Ethel Rosenberg; Jennie Churchill

Clare Mulley is an award-winning author focused on female experiences during the Second World War. Her books include AGENT ZO, THE WOMEN WHO FLEW FOR HITLER, THE SPY WHO LOVED, and THE WOMAN WHO SAVED THE CHILDREN. Popular on TV, radio, and pods, Clare reviews widely across the papers and has served as a judge for the Historical Writers Association and Biographers Club book prizes. She is a recipient of the Polish honor, the Bene Merito, and the Daily Mail Biographers Club Prize.