title: Citizens of London: How Britain was Rescued in Its Darkest, Finest Hour
author:  Lynne Olson 
description: "<b>Citizens of London</b> is richly anecdotal and chock full of interesting and pertinent analysis, a riveting, well-researched account of a chapter in history when well-timed collaboration helped save the day." <br />--<i>London Free Press<br /></i><br />"Olson sifts through the immense amount of material on the period and crafts a cracking good read....Finely done." <br />--<i>New York Post<br /></i><br />"Plenty to appreciate thanks to Olson's storytelling skills, including recaps of romance that never seem too gossipy or out of place." <br />--<i>The Christian Science Monitor<br /></i><br />"[An] exceedingly well-told story...a superb trip to an amazing city in time of war."<br />--<i>The Providence Journal-Bulletin</i>
zlib_text: 
  
  
  # Chapter 1
  
  
  
  
  
  Although London was at its hottest in July, the office windows were tightly
  closed and an electric fire glowed in the grate.
  
  
  
  
  
  The heat beat steadily on the frosted-glass partition of the secretary’s
  cubicle and made life barely supportable to Miss Bond as she bent over the
  hundreds of reports before her, but to General Kirk, head of Her Majesty’s
  Foreign Office Intelligence it was a near approach to heaven.
  
  
  
  
  
  Smiling like a contented cat, he put down the cigar with which he had been
  thickening the already overpowering atmosphere and lifted the ringing
  telephone beside him.
  
  
  
  
  
  “Oh, it’s you, Igor, how very nice. But of course, my dear chap, come up as
  soon as you like. What! From the army people you say, that’s odd, they’re
  usually so reluctant to part with any of the crumbs they sometimes manage to
  glean. And you and your boys can make nothing of it. Odder still. Right you
  are, come up at once.”
  
  
  
  
  
  The man who entered the room a few minutes later was tall