I Heard My Country Calling

<p><strong>After a tragic childhood among the Great War cemeteries of Flanders Fields, a troubled young woman searches for love and meaning in war ravaged Europe.</strong></p><p>Elaine Madden’s quest takes her from occupied Belgium through the chaos of Dunkirk, where she flees, disguised as a British soldier, into the London Blitz, where she finally begins to discover herself. Recruited to T Section of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) as a ‘fast courier’, she is parachuted back to the country of her birth to undertake a top secret political mission and help speed its liberation from Nazi oppression.</p><p>Elaine Madden never claimed to be a heroine, but her story proves otherwise. Its centrepiece – war service as one of only two female SOE agents parachuted into occupied Belgium – is just one episode in an extraordinary real-life drama of highs and lows, love, loss and betrayal.</p><p><strong>Relayed to the author in the final years of her life, Elaine’s true story of courage and humour in testing times is more intriguing and compelling than fiction.</strong></p>