Spy Princess: Noor Inayat Khan

Spy Princess: Noor Inayat Khan is an Indian-American female spy from World War II, who fought with the French Resistance movement and was killed by the Germans at Dachau in 1944. She is one among only four women to have receive the George Cross for their bravery during World War II. Noor was born in Moscow on New Year's Day in 1914 to an Indian father and an American mother. She grew up in London and France and was recruited by the British as the first woman radio operator and sent to France during World War II. (Historical footnote: There appears to be a connection between Tipu Sultan and Star Spangled Banner, the American national anthem.) This intriguing historical figure who is the great, great, great grand-daugher of Tipu Sultan, an 18th century Indian ruler and a distant relative of Mary Eddy Baker, founder of the Christian Science Movement. Noor's father was a Sufi minister and a musician. Noor was only 30 years old when she was killed. Spy Princess: Noor Inayat Khan is a biography written by London-based Shrabani Basu. The book was recently released in the USA. In this piece Shrabani talks about how she put the book together and describes the effort as a "giant jigsaw puzzle." Shrabani describes Noor as a gentle musician on the one hand, and a fierce fighter on the other. Four men were needed to pin down this "Tigress of Paris," when she was imprisoned by the German points out Shrabani.