“‘I must have liberty’ she proclaimed in her school yearbook in 1924, at the age of eighteen, ‘withal as large a charter as I please.’”

Virginia defied convention from the early years of her life. She was more interested in adventure and danger than in school societies, dances, the ritual of courtship, and social climbing. Here, she explicitly stated that she would determine the boundaries of her own freedom and would not submit to others’ ideas of what she should be.

“In what became known as the decade of lies, truth and trust were falling victim to fear, racism, and hatred.”

As Hitler and Mussolini rose to power, the growing fascism horrified Virginia. However, the “decade of lies” created a perfect environment for the growth and expansion of espionage, with its focus on deception and stealth. Virginia saw that democracy could not thrive with lies as its foundation, but the only way to combat those lies was, ironically, to engage in lying herself.

“Traditionally, British secret services had drawn from a shallow gene pool of posh boys raised on imperial adventure stories, but this regard for breeding over intellect was scarcely a match for the ruthless barbarism of the Third Reich.”

Historically, professional espionage was the purview of elite, often aristocratic boys who longed for adventure and legendary status. The savagery of the Nazis demanded a response in kind. The British secret service would have to rethink its strategies to combat a foe whose inhumanity had no limits. By the time Virginia joined SOE, it had acknowledged its need for a more aggressive and unconventional approach. Among other things, this included hiring women.