The Improbable Heroine: Lela Karayanni and the British Secret Services in World War II Greece

Stylianos Perrakis

Published by De Gruyter Oldenbourg 2022

The Improbable Heroine

Lela Karayanni and the British Secret Services in World War II Greece

Stylianos Perrakis

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110778403

Overview
Contents

About this book

This is the first biography in English of a World War II heroine of the Greek resistance, who joined the British secret intelligence services (SIS) shortly after the German occupation of Athens and was betrayed, arrested and executed one month before the Germans’ departure. She was a prosperous housewife with seven children, who had no experience in politics or military affairs, and yet she managed to build a formidable escape, espionage and sabotage organization that interacted with the highest levels of SIS agents in Occupied Greece.

Book Presentation with Prof. Stylianos Perrakis (Concordia University), Prof. Stathis Kalyvas (University of Oxford), and Prof. Gonda van Steen (King’s College London)

Author / Editor information

Stylianos Perrakis, Royal Bank of Canada Distinguished Professor of Financial Derivatives at Concordia University, Canada.

Reviews

“The Improbable Heroine” by Stylianos Perrakis was shortlisted for The London Hellenic Prize 2022!

From the jury’s statement: „The Improbable Heroine: Lela Karayanni and the British Secret Services in World War II Greece has brought to life the most inclusive, most well-researched biography of Greece’s famous resistance fighter who contributed so much to the British anti-German underground. Author Stylianos Perrakis sheds light into unknown aspects of anglo-hellenic wartime collaboration and raises Lela Karayianni to the highest pedestal of freedom-fighters.”

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"The book is extremely pleasant to read, keeps the readers engaged with the narrative and allows those who are not familiar with Greece’s World War II history to follow the story of the heroine within the broader background of its time and place." – Nikos Marantzidis, Professor of Politics and Contemporary History, University of Macedonia, and author of several best-selling books on World War II Greece

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"In the end, the author succeeds in his primary task. He presents an authentic portrait of L.K as a truly remarkable woman, self-made, resourceful, indefatigable, idealistic, patriotic, inspiring and above all, an incredibly brave and dedicated Resistance leader. With the publication of this study the author will have secured for L.K. a permanent place of distinction and honor in the male-dominated pantheon of Greece’s World War II Resistance leaders." – John O. Iatrides, Professor Emeritus of International Politics, Southern Connecticut State University

***

The official book presentation took place in Ottawa on March 5, 2023, and was hosted by the Canadian Institute of Mediterranean Studies. The presentation is available on You Tube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-arMMY4aa8&t=13s (last accessed October 5, 2023).

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	I
Foreword Publicly Available Download PDF	VII
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	XIII
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	XVII
List of acronyms Publicly Available Download PDF	XIX
1 Prologue Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
2 The troubled country: Greece in the early twentieth century Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	14
3 The making of a heroine: Lela Karayanni, 1898–1941 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	28
4 The British secret services in Greece at the beginning of the war Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	38
5 Greece at war: October 1940–May 1941 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	51
6 Lela Karayanni, resister and secret agent I: Mana Karayanni Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	70
7 The Kokkinia escapes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	95
8 Disaster in the Aegean Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	118
9 The smuggler the famine, and the rise of EAM Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	135
Illustrations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	162
10 Lela Karayanni, resister and secret agent II: Spies and saboteurs, 1941–1942 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	178
11 Thurgoland and Harling Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	224
12 From Prometheus to Apollo and the Lela connection Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	236
13 Armed resistance, collaboration, and the politics of Dr. Frankenstein Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	254
14 Lela Karayanni, Righteous Among Nations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	265
15 Apollo wounded Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	279
16 The Grand Scheme and Lela’s arrest Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	289
17 The heroic deaths Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	313
18 Liberation and aftermath Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	325
19 Epilogue: Lela Karayanni, the armed resistance and the politicization of memory Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	339
Chronology of the main WW II events in Greece Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	350
List of photography sources Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	353
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	354
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	360

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter Oldenbourg
Audience: Scholars and students of the History of the Second World War, Feminist and Gender studies, and Modern Greek studies
Pages
- Front matter: 19
- Main content: 368
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 12
- Coloured Illustrations: 5
Keywords: Second World War; Greece; resistance; espionage

eBook

Published: June 21, 2022
ISBN: 9783110778403

Hardcover

Published: June 21, 2022
ISBN: 9783110777437