'I COULDN'T TELL A SOUL'

In a top-secret mission, the TV star’s uncovered how Pippa took on the Nazis

- Fleur Guthrie

For most of her life, Pippa Latour harboured an astonishing secret. She told no one – not even her husband or four children when they became adults – of her incredible feats, working behind enemy lines in France during World War II and being the last surviving female Special Operations Executive (SOE) agent from that war.

It was a part of her life that she intentionally never revealed, until TV personality and historical “storyteller” Jude Dobson struck up a friendship with the straight-talking centenarian. With trust established, Pippa chose Jude to write her memoir.

Week after week, the pair would spend a couple of hours at Pippa’s West Auckland home, nibbling on cheese scones and going over Pippa’s needle-sharp recollections.

Tells Jude, “Initially, I said, ‘When would it suit you for me to come and do these chats?’ And she replied, ‘Well, I’m quite busy during the week, so probably just the weekends.’ So I slotted in between when she fed her doves at 11am and 6pm every day.

“She’d always set me homework too,” laughs Jude. “I’d go away and my head would be spinning, thinking, ‘How on earth will I find that out?’ But I always did.

“Some tasks that she set for me were, however, impossible, like getting ‘poppycock’ about her removed from the internet.”

Then there were their impromptu photos sessions.