Churchill's White Rabbit

May 6, 2013
Though there’s evidence that Ian Fleming was aware of the exploits of the subject of this book, it’s unlikely that British secret agent Forest Yeo-Thomas (1902–1964), code-named “White Rabbit” by the Gestapo, really inspired the fictional character of James Bond. Jackson’s (Churchill’s Unexpected Guests) account is entertaining and well documented, but it lacks the pyrotechnics and thrilling triumphs of the 007 series; she mostly documents Yeo-Thomas’s furtive travels, clandestine meetings, and political quarrels. But that doesn’t mean the White Rabbit didn’t live an extraordinary life in service of his country—as with any good true tale of wartime spying, there are tense nighttime encounters with shadowy enemies and plenty of duplicitousness. As a member of the British Secret Operations Executive, Yeo-Thomas, a fluent speaker of French, parachuted into Nazi-occupied France to help unify and supply its many disorganized and feuding resistance groups. Soon after, he was arrested, relentlessly tortured, and shipped to the concentration camp at Buchwenwald, from which he and a small cohort miraculously escaped. Though the subtitle is a stretch, fans of WWII espionage will relish Jackson’s portrait of the White Rabbit.