Vadim Birstein: SMERSH

Garbo was the British codename of Juan Pujol García, perhaps the most influential spy of the Second World War. By feeding false information to the Germans on the eve of the D-Day landings he ensured Hitler held troops back that might otherwise have defeated the Normandy landings. Amazingly, Garbo’s cover was never broken and he remains the only person ever to have been awarded both the British MBE and the German Iron Cross. After the war Garbo faked his own death and fled to Venezuela. Ironically, his family in Spain only found out he was still alive when this book was published, Garbo having failed to realise it would also be translated into Spanish.

Andrée De Jongh—the Little Cyclone—set up the Comet Line to smuggle trapped soldiers and airmen through France and across the Pyrenees into Spain. When the first group never made it, the Little Cyclone did the job herself: she marched up to the British consulate in Bilbao in August 1941 with a Scottish soldier—and insisted she could bring many more. MI6 was convinced she was a German spy, but the Little Cyclone got her way and her escape route saved the lives of more than 800 Allied servicemen.

Little Cyclone is a tale of tragedy and triumph, a remarkably human and inspiring story that rivals the most dramatic of thrillers.