Heroines of SOE by Hannah Howe

Heroines of SOE

by Hannah Howe

Marie–Thérèse Le Chêne

Described by fellow agent Peter Churchill as ‘a woman full of humour and common sense’, Marie-Thérèse Le Chêne was born on 20 April 1890 in Sedan, France. A small woman, she possessed grey hair and sharp determined features.

Aged 52, Marie-Thérèse was the oldest female SOE agent sent to France where she served from 31 October 1942 until 19 August 1943 as a courier, working alongside her husband, Henri Le Chêne, and her brother-in-law, Pierre Le Chêne. Early in World War Two, Marie-Thérèse fled France for London with her husband, Henri. In London, Marie-Thérèse worked as a cook and manager of a hotel. Henri, a British citizen despite his French birth, had previously managed a hotel in Nairobi, Kenya. Interestingly, the Le Chêne family decided to join the SOE, and not Charles de Gaulle’s Resistance movement. There was great rivalry between the SOE and de Gaulle’s Resistance movement, and a lot of in-fighting, mainly based on rival political beliefs. On the night of 3/4 November 1942, Marie-Thérèse landed at Port Miou, near Cassis. She arrived with fellow agents George Starr, Mary Herbert and Odette Sansom and worked alongside her husband as a courier and later as a distributor of political pamphlets and antiGerman leaflets. Towards the end of her period in France, she also conducted sabotage missions on a canal and a railway line.

During a visit to Clermont-Ferrand, a town that strongly favoured the Resistance, Marie-Thérèse discovered that the workers at the Michelin Rubber Works were sabotaging production and delivering inferior tyres to the Germans. This not only disrupted the Germans, but also kept the workers in constant employment. In January 1943, with the Gestapo closing in and Pierre captured, Henri fled France via the Pyrenees, the most popular land escape route at the time. Too tired to join him, Marie-Thérèse hid in friends’ houses until an SOE Hudson evacuated her from a field in Angers on 19 August 1943. Back in Britain, she rejoined her husband who added wryly that he had joined the SOE to get away from his wife, but that she had followed him into the service.

After the war, Marie-Thérèse, Henri and Pierre, who’d managed to escape, returned to France where they opened a hotel in Sainte-Menehould.

Hannah Howe is the author of the Sam Smith Mystery Series, the Ann's War Mystery Series and the #1 international bestseller Saving Grace. Hannah's books are published by Goylake Publishing and distributed through Gardners Books to over 300 outlets worldwide. Her books are available in print, as eBooks and audiobooks, and are being translated into ten languages. Discover more on Mom's Favorite Reads website:

https://moms-favorite-reads.com/moms-authors/hannah-howe

Bekah Rain Art

Interviewed by Lisa Shambrook

Art is important, adding to society in many ways, it provides decoration, talking points, culture, expression, creativity, inspiration and so much more. Bekah Rain Art embraces all of this.

About the Artist

I’m Bekah, an artist based in South Wales, UK. I primarily use watercolour but I love to work with a variety of mediums including oil and acrylic paints.

I have a series of collections that range from celebrating the human body in all its exquisite forms, to channelling the awe inspiring beauty of the natural world.

My ultimate goal with my art is to inspire others to see the beauty in everything around us. when I studied art for my A Levels I lost focus on any other subject I was studying and put everything into my art.

What made you want to focus on body positivity?

Last month, Bekah opened her first online shop to offer her art to the world – Bekah Rain Art. Please pop over and take a look and see what inspires you. Her initial pieces work with Body Positivity, Diversity, People, and Nature. Working with watercolour as her main medium, she has also used acrylics, pen, and is currently working on a large oil painting. I asked her a few questions to celebrate her launch:

Have you always loved to draw and paint?

I have, it’s been one of the few things in my life that has been a constant love of mine. I’ve been drawing since I can remember and in school if you asked me my favourite subject it was always Art. To the point that I see a lot of nude art that focuses on one body type: skinny, abled, primarily white. I wanted to bring something new to people, every body is beautiful and they deserve to see that in art. I have painted people with different body types, perceived flaws, and disabilities. I only have five pieces in my Strength Within collection available right now but I have many more in the works. This collection is about empowering people to love their bodies.

Do you have a favourite medium to work in? What does art mean to you?

Watercolour, if I had to pick one medium to use for the rest of my life, it would be watercolour. I love how unpredictable it can be depending on the surface I paint on. I love the loose flow it offers me, I find watercolour inspires me while I am in the process of painting. I love to experiment with other mediums though, I’m currently working on an Oil on Canvas piece which is slow but it’s turning out beautifully. I’ve learned a lot working on that piece. That’s a huge question! It’s expression in its purest form, it’s inspiration and beauty. I think people don’t always value it, they consider it to be frivolous, but everything involves art. Look at architecture, television, books, cars and so on, art surrounds us all everyday and I think that is a beautiful thing. Look what we as humans can create! A world without art would be such a flat existence.

You can see more of Bekah’s art on her website: https://www.bekahrainart.com/

I was born and raised in vibrant Brighton, England, and living by the ocean heavily influenced my lyrical and emotional writing. After I had my first of three children we moved to Carmarthen, West Wales, a market town also rich in legend and lore.

I began weaving intricate stories inside my head early, but these days my words find themselves bursting forth in the forms of flash fiction, short stories, and novels. I'm a sensory writer and I delve into sensitive subjects that will lift your spirit and steal your heart, and I conjure worlds of fantasy and post-apocalypse which will ignite your imagination.