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Sonia Purnell

Biography

Sonia Purnell

Sonia Purnell is a biographer and journalist who has worked at The Economist, The Telegraph and The Sunday Times. Her book CLEMENTINE: The Life of Mrs. Winston Churchill (published as FIRST LADY in the UK) was chosen as a book of the year by The Telegraph and The Independent, and was a finalist for the Plutarch Award. Her first book, JUST BORIS, was longlisted for the Orwell prize.

Sonia Purnell

Books by Sonia Purnell

A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II
by Sonia Purnell - Biography, History, Nonfiction

Virginia Hall was a Baltimore socialite who talked her way into Special Operations Executive, the spy organization dubbed Winston Churchill's "Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare." She became the first Allied woman deployed behind enemy lines and --- despite her prosthetic leg --- helped to light the flame of the French Resistance, revolutionizing secret warfare as we know it. Based on new and extensive research, Sonia Purnell has for the first time uncovered the full secret life of Virginia Hall --- an astounding and inspiring story of heroism, spycraft, resistance and personal triumph over shocking adversity.

Clementine: The Life of Mrs. Winston Churchill
by Sonia Purnell - Biography, History, Nonfiction

By Winston Churchill’s own admission, victory in the Second World War would have been “impossible without her.” Until now, however, the only existing biography of Churchill’s wife, Clementine, was written by her daughter. Sonia Purnell finally gives Clementine her due with a deeply researched account that tells her life story, revealing how she was instrumental in softening FDR’s initial dislike of her husband and paving the way for Britain’s close relationship with America. It also provides a surprising account of her relationship with Eleanor Roosevelt and their differing approaches to the war effort.