Noreen Riols

Noreen Patricia Riols, (; 8 May 1926 – 2 January 2025) was a British novelist. During the Second World War, she worked for the Special Operations Executive, a British espionage and sabotage organisation.

Life and career Riols was born in 1926 in Malta, where her father was serving in the Royal Navy. She studied at the French Lycée in London, and at age 17 she applied to join the Women's Royal Naval Service (Wrens). Because of her fluency in French, she was instead recruited into the F-section (F=France) of the Special Operations Executive (SOE). The F-section recruited and trained spies and agents to be dropped into France where they would sabotage Nazi operations and support the French Resistance. Her role was to train agents in activities such as passing messages covertly or how to follow someone, and to act as a decoy in scenarios created to test agents.

She wrote four novels (the Ardnakil Chronicles) based on her experiences in SOE: Katherine,

In 2014 she published a memoir of her time in the SOE, The Secret Ministry of Ag. & Fish: my life in Churchill's school for spies. The title of the book came from the cover she used during the war; because her work was covered by the Official Secrets Act she told family and friends that she worked for the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. Riols tried unsuccessfully to be recognised as a war veteran in France, but was told that Britain was not a war zone, and that the SOE was not an operational unit.

Riols died on 2 January 2025, at the age of 98.

Publications

Non-fiction Eye of the Storm (1983) Abortion: A woman's birth right? (1986) Only the best (1987) When suffering comes (1990) My unknown child: a personal story of abortion (1995) The Secret Ministry of Ag. & Fish: my life in Churchill's school for spies (2014)

Fiction Laura (1992) Where hope shines through (1994) Katherine (1994) To live again (1995; republished 2013) Before the dawn (1996; republished 2013) Where love endures (1997; republished 2013) Autumn sonata (2014)