During my research into the Bella story, I’ve come across repeated references to a booklet published by Rik Rawling entitled Ghost of a Hurt. Unable to find a copy online, I reached out to Pete Merrill (co-author of another book on Bella) and got Rawling’s contact info. Rawling was kind enough to send me a […]
Book Review – Ghost of a Hurt – Bella in the Wych Elm – Rik Rawling (2008) Read More »
The Spy in the Tower has been published for just over six months now and I’ve received some feedback from a few people, including a maternal uncle who thought he was ordering a “pamphlet” and received a “tome”, much to his surprise! It certainly isn’t an overnight read but I was hoping that a few
The Spy in the Tower – Reviews and a Request Read More »
The Book Shanghai Remembered: Stories of Jews who escaped to Shanghai from Nazi Europe. Bert Falbaum (ed.). Momentum Books. 2005. Summary I came across this book while researching the stories of the German Jews who got caught up in Niska and Ziebell’s passport business. The book is composed of chapters written by individuals whose families
Book Review – Shanghai Remembered – Bert Faulbaum (ed.) (2005) Read More »
The Book Bella: An Unsolved Murder. Joyce M. Coley. History in Print. 2007. Summary This book was written over 12 years ago by Joyce M. Coley, and is often quoted in Bella lore. I ordered a copy from Amazon and read it in less than an hour. The book is more pamphlet than “book” comprising
Book Review – Bella: An Unsolved Murder – Joyce M. Coley (2007) Read More »
Another interruption to the blog series on the black market German passport business. I’m needing some serious research time to look into the Finn Algoth Niska. Quite a character but much of the information is in Finnish and requires some tedious translation work with Google Translate. Stay tuned for the continuing series in a week
Book Review – Some were Spies – The Earl Jowitt (1954) Read More »
Came across this news article the other day in the Birmingham Mail… Keith K. Swallow’s Book According to the article, an author named Keith K. Swallow claims that, after years of research, he knows the identity of Bella in the Wych Elm. Not a spy. Not Clara Bauerle. Not a prostitute. Not a “Dutch piece”
Bella in the Wych Elm – Solved? Read More »
If anyone out there has read The Spy in the Tower, might I ask you to please visit the book’s page on the Goodreads site and leave a review. Amazon only allows “verified purchasers” to leave reviews on their site sooo… if people buy the book from the Book Depository… they can’t leave a review
The Spy in the Tower on Goodreads.com Read More »
The BookThe Beautiful Spy – The Life and Crimes of Vera Eriksen. David Tremain. The History Press. 2019. SummaryIn late September 1940, two men and a woman beached their inflatable life raft on the coast of Scotland. The group split up, one man (Werner Walti) went off on his own and got as far as
It seems this is the year for books on LENA spies! In an earlier blog, I had highlighted a soon to be published book (18 March – publication date pushed back by 3 weeks) by David Tremain: The Beautiful Spy: The Life and Crimes of Vera Eriksen. Tremain’s book is available on The History Press
The Beautiful and Popular Vera Eriksen/Schalburg Read More »
I’m happy to report that we are one step closer to getting the story of Josef Jakobs published! The History Press has added “The Spy in the Tower: the Untold Story of Josef Jakobs, the Last Person to be Executed at the Tower of London” to their roster of books, available on their website. The
One Step Closer to Publication – The Spy in the Tower (2019) Read More »