SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2025: 'A masterfully written biography...
inspiring and powerful' 'Gripping moving and important' SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIORE 'Agent Zo
is a triumph. Absolutely essential reading' HALLIE RUBENHOLD 'The astonishing story of an
extraordinary woman' JONATHAN FREEDLAND Agent Zo tells the incredible true story of El¿bieta
Zawacka the WW2 resistance fighter known as 'Zo'. The only woman to reach London from Warsaw
during the Second World War as an emissary of the Polish Home Army command Zo undertook two
missions in the capital before secret Special Operations Executive training in the British
countryside. As the only female member of the Polish elite Special Forces - the
SOE-affiliated 'Silent Unseen' - Zo became the only woman to parachute from Britain to Nazi
German-occupied Poland. There whilst being hunted by the Gestapo (who arrested her entire
family) she played a key role in the Warsaw Uprising and ultimately in the liberation of
Poland. After the war Zo was demobbed as one of the most highly decorated women in Polish
history. Yet the Soviet-backed post-war Communist regime not only imprisoned her but ensured
that her remarkable story remained hidden for over forty years. Now through new archival
research and exclusive interviews with people who knew and fought alongside Zo Clare Mulley
brings this forgotten hero back to life transforming the way we see female agency in the
Second World War. 'Deeply researched and written with verve... thoughtful as well as action
packed' The Times