After finishing Tightrope I couldn't wait and had to start the original book about Marian Sutro. While Tightrope was good, it was very different from what has been waiting for me.
Now, thinking about the difference, both books reflect who Marian Sutro is at that point of her life. The Girl Who Fell from the Sky has the urgency and clarity of youth. Marian is motivated, brave, and perhaps a bit naive about what war might cost her. She does not hesitate, and same does the book. Which is contrast to Tightrope, where she carries the weight of what she's been through. By events that can't be undone.
Having said that, there's a reason why I like Simon Mawer's writing. It's amazing.
Which brings this to closure, and I can't help it but copy the foreward.
The French section of the Special Operations Executive sent thirty-nine women into the field between May 1941 and September 1944. Of these, twelve were murdered following their capture by the Germans, while one other died of meningitis during her mission. The remainder survived the war. Some of these women became well known to the public through films and books that were written about them. Others remained, and remain, obscure. They were all remarkable.