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We are thrilled to start the fall season with author Trine Engholm Michelsen and editor Duncan Rogers who will speak about the book Codename: Grand Duchess, which reveals the hidden life of a woman who knew almost everything yet spoke of none of it. Spanning the years 1939 to 1945, Codename: Grand Duchess brings Jutta Graae out of the shadows as one of the great unsung heroines of the Second World War.
Duncan Rogers will speak about how the author first contacted him regarding the book, what interested him in the project, and how they worked together to bring Jutta Graae’s story to an English-speaking readership. Rogers would also like to say something about why books such as this continue to matter. Although rooted in the particular circumstances of occupation and resistance during the Second World War, Jutta’s story raises questions that remain relevant today: how individuals respond when democratic institutions and personal freedoms are threatened; the importance of courage, responsibility and moral choice; and the role played by people whose contributions have too often remained outside the better-known historical narrative. Publishing the book in English allows that story to reach a wider audience and helps ensure that its lessons are not confined to one country or one generation.
Trine Engholm Michelsen will tell how she discovered Miss Graae. It all started when she saw the group photo of key figures behind the liberation of Denmark from Nazi occupation, summer of 1945. Jutta Graae is sitting in the front but no-one really knew who she was. As women were banned from military issues in Denmark until 1960, Trine Engholm Michelsen chose to dig deeper into Miss Graae who happened to be one of Great Britain’s most important agents in Denmark during WWII.
Code-named ‘The Grand Duchess’ in occupied Copenhagen, ‘Haddock’ in London and ‘The Scarlet Pimpernel’ in Stockholm, Graae built secret bridges to Churchill’s Britain, funnelling intelligence, messages, and men across Nazi-controlled borders. From her respectable bank office and well-laid dinner tables, she helped shift Denmark’s image from Nazi puppet to trusted ally – all the while knowing that one careless word could mean torture and death.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Trine Engholm Michelsen is now a full-time author after two decades as an analyst in the Danish Intelligence Services DSIS and DDIS. She holds a PhD in international politics and a master’s in political philosophy.
ABOUT THE EDITOR
Duncan Rogers is the founder and Managing Director of Helion & Company, an independent British publishing house specialising in military history. He established the company in 1996 after studying Modern History at the University of Warwick. Over the past thirty years, he has worked with authors and historians from across the world to bring important and often overlooked aspects of military, political and social history to an international readership, and has published over 1,800 titles. Helion now publishes approximately 200 new titles each year, covering aspects of military history and defence from the ancient world to the present day.
Photo shared with written permission. Photo by Thomas Jensen