Code Name: Lise (Loftis) - Discussion Questions

Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for CODE NAME: LISE … then take off on your own:

1. What prompted Odette Sansom to leave her husband and three young daughters and sign up with SOE?

2. How would you describe Odette? The evaluation following her SOE training referred to her as a loose cannon, arrogant, relentless, and fearless. Do you agree with any/all of those descriptions? What adjectives would you add?

3. Why did SOE recruit Odette? What qualities made her potential spy material?

4. The SOE training program Sansom underwent proved rigorous. How do you think you might have fared? What part of training would you have found most difficult?

5. What do you make of Peter Churchill and the couple's love affair?

6. Talk about the mistake Odette made which resulted in her capture by the Nazis.

7. In what way did her childhood illnesses—polio and blindness—help prepare Odette for the horrific ordeal as a Nazi prisoner?

8. Why didn't the Nazis kill Odette and Peter?

9. Of the many incidents, close calls, lies and ruses, which stand out to you most—in terms of Odette's bravery and cleverness, in terms of danger or recklessness… or anything else in particular?

10. Would you have signed up for the SOE? Would you have been capable or willing to undertake the role of a spy in Nazi occupied territory?

(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. Thanks.)

top of page (summary)