Soren Paul Petrek, author of the Madeleine Toche Series published in Denmark, Italy, France and the United States answered the following questions for Female First, U.K.
1. I spent a great deal of time researching female British Special Operations Executive agents and those in the French Resistance while preparing to write Cold Lonely Courage.
2. My protagonist is a young French woman, Madeleine Toche. Her road to becoming WW2’s most deadly assassin is a bloody one.
3. I was shocked at the lack of attention given the female heroes of the war. It is reminiscentof the inequities afforded women in our male-dominated society. We must have fairness in all things, regardless of gender or ethnicity.
4. The reviews from my readers gauge the success of my writing. I write to entertain my readers. I cannot read boring books. I had enough of that in school.
5. I sat my O Levels a million years ago at the Heathland School in Hounslow. I passed all seven.
6. I spent many summers in London in my teens and twenties. My father was the president of Richmond University, the American International University of London. My mother was the deputy principal of the London Montessori Center.
7. I worked in the Maintenance Department at Richmond University. Many of the men wereWW2 veterans. Listening to their stories sparked my interest in WW2.
8. My protagonist, WW2 super-assassin Madeleine Toche, got her name from a family friend, Madeleine Behren. She was a member of the Belgian Resistance, which helped Jewish children escape the Nazis.
9. My mother taught me to read while we lived in Aix-en-Provence. I went to preschool there. The headmistress was Madame Toche. Madeleine shares her last name.
10. Although I wrote four books about war, I am a champion of peace and fairness among men and women the world over.
