Churchill’s White Rabbit

Forest Yeo-Thomas GC was one of the bravest of the brave. A fluent French-speaker, he joined SOE and was parachuted into occupied France three times to work with the Resistance. Appalled by the lack of help the British were providing, he managed to arrange a five-minute meeting with Winston Churchill, during which he persuaded him to do more. On his third mission he was betrayed and captured by the Gestapo; he suffered horrendous torture before being sent to Buchenwald concentration camp, from where he eventually managed to escape, making it back to Allied lines shortly before the end of the war. Sophie Jackson's biography reveals new information about how the torture affected Yeo-Thomas, the state of SOE-Resistance co-operation, Gestapo typhus experiments at Buchenwald and how 'White Rabbit', Yeo-Thomas, provided the inspiration for Ian Fleming's famous secret agent, James Bond.

Forest Yeo-Thomas GC was one of the bravest of the brave. A fluent French-speaker, he joined SOE and was parachuted into occupied France three times to work with the Resistance. Appalled by the lack of help the British were providing, he managed to arrange a five-minute meeting with Winston Churchill, during which he persuaded him to do more. On his third mission he was betrayed and captured by the Gestapo; he suffered horrendous torture before being sent to Buchenwald concentration camp, from where he eventually managed to escape, making it back to Allied lines shortly before the end of the war. Sophie Jackson's biography reveals new information about how the torture affected Yeo-Thomas, the state of SOE-Resistance co-operation, Gestapo typhus experiments at Buchenwald and how 'White Rabbit', Yeo-Thomas, provided the inspiration for Ian Fleming's famous secret agent, James Bond.