Sleeping With the Enemy: Coco Chanel, Nazi Agent - Softcover

Vaughan, Hal

3.27

2,497 ratings by Goodreads

9780701185015: Sleeping With the Enemy: Coco Chanel, Nazi Agent

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0701185015 ISBN 13: 9780701185015

Publisher: Chatto & Windus, 2011

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Coco Chanel, high priestess of couture, created the look of the chic modern woman: her simple and elegant designs freed women from their corsets and inspired them to crop their hair. By the 1920s, Chanel employed more than two thousand people in her workrooms, and had amassed a personal fortune. But at the start of the Second World War, Chanel closed down her couture house and went to live quietly at the Ritz, moving to Switzerland after the war. For more than half a century, Chanel's life from 1941 to 1954 has been shrouded in rumour. Neither Chanel nor her biographers have told the full story, until now. In this explosive narrative Hal Vaughan pieces together Chanel's hidden years, from the Nazi occupation of Paris to the aftermath of the Liberation. He uncovers the truth of Chanel's anti-Semitism and long-whispered collaboration with Hitler's officials. In particular, Chanel's long relationship with 'Spatz', Baron von Dincklage, previously described as a tennis-playing playboy and German diplomat, and finally exposed here as a Nazi master spy and agent who ran an intelligence ring in the Mediterranean and reported directly to Joseph Goebbels. "Sleeping with the Enemy" tells in detail how Chanel became a German intelligence operative, Abwehr agent F-7124; how she was enlisted in spy missions, and why she evaded arrest in France after the war. It reveals the role played by Winston Churchill in her escape from retribution; and how, after a nine-year exile in Switzerland with Dincklage, and despite French investigations into her espionage activities, Coco was able to return to Paris and triumphantly reinvent herself - and rebuild the House of Chanel. As Hal Vaughan shows, far from being a heroine of France, Chanel was in fact one of its most surprising traitors.

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Review:

"[Hal Vaughan] ably demonstrates that Chanel was far from an innocent victim of circumstance during the second world war but a fully fledged Abwehr (German secret service) agent with her own number and codename: Westminster (no doubt a nod to her one-time lover, the Duke of Westminster). . . Vaughan, who writes with welcome economy and flair, deserves a lot of credit for finally unraveling the strands of Chanel's deeply deceptive personality."
--Tobias Grey, "Financial Times"
"
"[Sleeping with the Enemy]" distinguishes itself from the many other Chanel biographies by tackling the dicey subject of Gabrielle Chanel's activities during World War II . . . This is a frank and unsentimental portrait of a figure that fashion writers are nearly incapable of criticizing. . . While Vaughan's discussions of Chanel's contributions to fashion add nothing new to the extensive literature on her, he more than makes up for it with his impressive research and the never-before-seen information that he has unearthed about her wartime activities. . . . What "Sleeping with the Enemy" offers is a more rounded look at a figure who has been over-studied and under-examined."
--"Isabel Schwab, The New Republic online "
"[A] compelling chronicle of Coco Chanel . . . a different Chanel from any you'll find at the company store . . . by no means the account of an emerging style but a tale of how a single-minded woman faced history, made hard choices, connived, lied, collaborated and used every imaginable wile to survive and see that the people she cared about survived with her . . . Vaughan has gleaned many of the details of Chanel's collaboration from documents that were scattered for years throughout European archives . . . It's an astonishing story . . gripping . . . provocative . . . riveting history."
--Marie Arana, "The Washington Post"
"Chanel's war years, as explored by Hal Vaughan, are as camera-ready and as neck-deep in melodrama as Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds," and just as hard to forget now that they're exposed."
--David D'Arcy, " San Francisco Chronicle"
"Hal Vaughan has done a stupendous job of research . . . Vaughan draws a brilliant portrait . . a terrific and fascinating story. . . wonderfully told, and full of great characters. . . Vaughan brings her to life so vividly that we understand why no less a judge than AndrE Malraux said that "from this century in France only three names will remain: de Gaulle, Picasso, and Chanel.." . . It is that rarest of good reads, a biography about a famous person with a surprise on every page. Nancy Mitford, I think, would have loved it, and written a wonderful letter to Evelyn Waugh about it!"
--Michael Korda, "The Daily Beast"

[Hal Vaughan] ably demonstrates that Chanel was far from an innocent victim of circumstance during the second world war but a fully fledged Abwehr (German secret service) agent with her own number and codename: Westminster (no doubt a nod to her one-time lover, the Duke of Westminster). . . Vaughan, who writes with welcome economy and flair, deserves a lot of credit for finally unraveling the strands of Chanel s deeply deceptive personality.
Tobias Grey, Financial Times

[Sleeping with the Enemy] distinguishes itself from the many other Chanel biographies by tackling the dicey subject of Gabrielle Chanel s activities during World War II . . . This is a frank and unsentimental portrait of a figure that fashion writers are nearly incapable of criticizing. . . While Vaughan s discussions of Chanel s contributions to fashion add nothing new to the extensive literature on her, he more than makes up for it with his impressive research and the never-before-seen information that he has unearthed about her wartime activities. . . . What Sleeping with the Enemy offers is a more rounded look at a figure who has been over-studied and under-examined.
Isabel Schwab, The New Republic online
[A] compelling chronicle of Coco Chanel . . . a different Chanel from any you ll find at the company store . . . by no means the account of an emerging style but a tale of how a single-minded woman faced history, made hard choices, connived, lied, collaborated and used every imaginable wile to survive and see that the people she cared about survived with her . ..Vaughan has gleaned many of the details of Chanel s collaboration from documents that were scattered for years throughout European archives . . . It s anastonishing story . . gripping . . . provocative . . . riveting history.
Marie Arana, TheWashingtonPost
Chanel s war years, as explored by Hal Vaughan, are as camera-ready and as neck-deep in melodrama as Quentin Tarantino s Inglourious Basterds, and just as hard to forget now that they re exposed.
David D Arcy, San Francisco Chronicle
"Hal Vaughan has done a stupendous job of research . . . Vaughan draws a brilliant portrait . . a terrific and fascinating story. . . wonderfully told, and full of great characters. . . Vaughan brings her to life so vividly that we understand why no less a judge than Andre Malraux said that "from this century in France only three names will remain: de Gaulle, Picasso, and Chanel.." . . It is that rarest of good reads, a biography about a famous person with a surprise on every page. Nancy Mitford, I think, would have loved it, and written a wonderful letter to Evelyn Waugh about it!"
Michael Korda, The Daily Beast"

Book Description:

The first book to uncover the true story of Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel in occupied Paris during the Second World War. Hal Vaughan reveals: her life as an Abwehr secret agent; her long love affair with a Nazi master spy; her missions on behalf of German military intelligence; and her astonishing escape from retribution through the intervention of Winston Churchill.

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