Code Name Verity

Growing up near Norwich, the home of Nurse Edith Cavell, I have always been susceptible to tales of heroic women in wartime and Code Name Verity is an absolute gem! Brilliantly researched and detailed this gives us a very real insight into active service for women during the War. It is very cleverly plotted too and keeps the reader, as well as the Gestapo, guessing about the truth of the confession being written under duress and indeed who it is that is actually being interrogated.

This is a book that is very difficult to review without giving away the twists and turns that are so integral to this multi-layered story. It is a story that does not flinch from the brutality of torture and interrogation, but why should it hide the reality of wartime?

This is not a glamorous tale where the heroine does not break a nail. These two girls at the centre of the story, unlikely but devoted friends, who are the spy and the pilot who delivers her behind enemy lines, are unforgettably real. They are not women who are trying to prove themselves as good as men, they are just enjoying doing what they are good at and also trying to doing the right thing, which is certainly not easy.

It is a fascinating and totally absorbing read with more than enough action and wartime excitement to keep boys, as well as girls, reading and I suspect that their hearts too, will also be broken by the denouement.

464 pages / Reviewed by  Joy Court, school librarian

Suggested Reading Age 14+