#52fridays

[trixibelle]

Friday brings us back to my weekly illustration project, #52fridays. Keeping up with my #unsungbritishheroes mini-series, today we have Noor Inayat Khan. Noor, along with her contemporaries Violette Szabo, Odette Sansom and many others really ought to be a household name. She is truly one of the heroes we ought to be most proud of. She is someone whose character I find incredibly compelling. I am so excited by Noor that I could talk about her for days, but I will try to keep it short. Noor Inayat Khan was a Sufi Muslim woman who grew up in France. During the Second World War and the occupation of France, she escaped to England where she volunteered to work against the Nazis. She was trained to be a spy by Winston Churchill's secret Special Operations Executive (SOE). By many accounts, Noor was a sweet, peaceful and gentle woman. She wrote children's books and was the daughter of a poet. Her trainers did not have high hopes for her success as a spy. She was thought too nice, not cunning enough. However, she was dropped back into France and became the SOE's longest surviving spy in the field. Her tenacity and bravery kept her out of reach of the nazis for many months. Spies in France were not expected to live long. They were lucky if they got out. Tragically, Noor was betrayed, captured, and later shot dead in Dachau. It is a bloody outrage that more people do not know about Noor Inayat Khan. She now finally has a statue dedicated to her memory in London, but has received barely any other form of recognition. There is an autobiography of her life, Spy Princess, which I strongly recommend. There ought to be a film about her (like there were films made for her fellow female spies). Khan was the SOE's most successful female operative. It is truly a disservice to forget her name.

[trixibelle]

Friday brings us back to my weekly illustration project, #52fridays. Keeping up with my #unsungbritishheroes mini-series, today we have Noor Inayat Khan. Noor, along with her contemporaries Violette Szabo, Odette Sansom and many others really ought to be a household name. She is truly one of the heroes we ought to be most proud of. She is someone whose character I find incredibly compelling. I am so excited by Noor that I could talk about her for days, but I will try to keep it short. Noor Inayat Khan was a Sufi Muslim woman who grew up in France. During the Second World War and the occupation of France, she escaped to England where she volunteered to work against the Nazis. She was trained to be a spy by Winston Churchill's secret Special Operations Executive (SOE). By many accounts, Noor was a sweet, peaceful and gentle woman. She wrote children's books and was the daughter of a poet. Her trainers did not have high hopes for her success as a spy. She was thought too nice, not cunning enough. However, she was dropped back into France and became the SOE's longest surviving spy in the field. Her tenacity and bravery kept her out of reach of the nazis for many months. Spies in France were not expected to live long. They were lucky if they got out. Tragically, Noor was betrayed, captured, and later shot dead in Dachau. It is a bloody outrage that more people do not know about Noor Inayat Khan. She now finally has a statue dedicated to her memory in London, but has received barely any other form of recognition. There is an autobiography of her life, Spy Princess, which I strongly recommend. There ought to be a film about her (like there were films made for her fellow female spies). Khan was the SOE's most successful female operative. It is truly a disservice to forget her name.

[trixibelle]

Today's entry for #52fridays is Roberta Cowell. Roberta was the first known British person to go through gender reassignment surgery. She was born in 1918, and was both a fighter pilot in WW2 and a racing car driver. Roberta had a mixed, difficult life and had conflicting views on gender and identity. She is often referred to as a transsexual woman, though she herself said she had been born intersex. Whilst her views on gender were sometimes problematic, she is worthy of being included in the Unsung British Heroes list simply because she really ought to be a household name. She was the first known person to undergo gender reassignment surgery in Britain. Roberta met a lonely end, dying alone at an old age. She had two daughters from whom she was estranged. The terribly sad thing is, when her daughters learnt more of the details of her life and death, all their comments were filled with love. She could have had that love. (at Amsterdam, Netherlands)

[trixibelle]

It's Friday again! How did that happen?! Well, that means it's time for #52fridays and we're continuing our Unsung British Heroes series. This week we have Mary Frith: The Roaring Girl / Moll Cutpurse In a popular 17th century play, a feisty character named Moll Cutpurse teaches a lustful suitor a valuable lesson about consent: “Thou art one of those that thinks each woman thy fond, flexible whore if she but cast a liberal eye upon thee,” are among her famous lines. Playwrights Thomas Dekker and Thomas Middleton based this character on a real-life contemporary of theirs named Mary Frith, who was notorious in London for swearing, pipe-smoking and dressing as a man. It didn’t take much to break the rules as a woman in early modern London. Even speaking too loudly was often enough to get a girl labeled a “whore”—a slur that could be ruinous and difficult to shake. Women were banned from being actors, and laws of apparel governed exactly what they could wear. When Mary Frith unapologetically took to the streets of London in men’s breeches or climbed on the stage of the Fortune Theater with her lute, she became a symbol of defiance. The details of Frith’s life have become inextricably tangled with the myths of Moll Cutpurse, but records show that she was repeatedly punished for her outlandish behavior. On one occasion when she was forced to publicly repent for her crimes, a witness said that though she “wept bitterly and seemed very penitent,” it was later discovered that she had downed some wine before her performance. #SorryNotSorry. All info here is copied from antvt.com, who tell Frith's story way better than I could have. (at Amsterdam, Netherlands)

[trixibelle]

It's Friday again! How did that happen?! Well, that means it's time for #52fridays and we're continuing our Unsung British Heroes series. This week we have Mary Frith: The Roaring Girl / Moll Cutpurse In a popular 17th century play, a feisty character named Moll Cutpurse teaches a lustful suitor a valuable lesson about consent: “Thou art one of those that thinks each woman thy fond, flexible whore if she but cast a liberal eye upon thee,” are among her famous lines. Playwrights Thomas Dekker and Thomas Middleton based this character on a real-life contemporary of theirs named Mary Frith, who was notorious in London for swearing, pipe-smoking and dressing as a man. It didn’t take much to break the rules as a woman in early modern London. Even speaking too loudly was often enough to get a girl labeled a “whore”—a slur that could be ruinous and difficult to shake. Women were banned from being actors, and laws of apparel governed exactly what they could wear. When Mary Frith unapologetically took to the streets of London in men’s breeches or climbed on the stage of the Fortune Theater with her lute, she became a symbol of defiance. The details of Frith’s life have become inextricably tangled with the myths of Moll Cutpurse, but records show that she was repeatedly punished for her outlandish behavior. On one occasion when she was forced to publicly repent for her crimes, a witness said that though she “wept bitterly and seemed very penitent,” it was later discovered that she had downed some wine before her performance. #SorryNotSorry. All info here is copied from antvt.com, who tell Frith's story way better than I could have. (at Amsterdam, Netherlands)

[trixibelle]

Well I don't know about where you are, but my Friday is bloody incredible 🌞☀️🌞 Long may your Fridays be sunny & free.🌞☀️🌞 (at Amsterdam, Netherlands)

[trixibelle]

The incredibly welcome sight of the auberge at Roncesvalles.

[trixibelle]

The incredibly welcome sight of the auberge at Roncesvalles. (at Roncesvalles, Navarra, Spain)