a small and quiet light

October 1943. In a small office on the Avenue Foch in Paris, a Gestapo interrogator is questioning a young woman who has been known by many different names: Babuli, Jeanne‑Marie, Nora, Madeleine.

As one of the secret agents of Britain’s Special Operations Executive – and the first female radio operator to be sent undercover into France – she has evaded capture far longer than most. But now she has been betrayed.

As she faces the fate she has dreaded so long, memories crowd in – a beloved father, a thwarted lover, a gruelling journey to war, and an endless longing for her childhood piano. What has led her here?

a small and quiet light is based on the life of Noor‑un‑Nissa Inayat Khan (1914–1944), an extraordinarily courageous woman who paid the ultimate price for her heroic fight against fascism.