InQ Episode 80: “Femme Fatale. Love, Lies and the Unknown Life of Mata Hari”

Ink & Quill

What do we remember of Mata Hari?

A dancer? Yes. A spy? Yes, that too. But what else?

In this fast-pace biography, Pat Shipman provides a fascinating account of how Margaretha Zelle MacLeod, Dutch citizen, became Mata Hari, and how this led her to be executed at the end of World War One.

Was Mata Hari a likable character, a gorgeous woman victim of her circumstances? Or was she a vile manipulator, eager and able to use men to retrieve her only means of sustenance: money? Was she by far the most intelligent women of her time, or an mere opportunist?

For anyone who is not familiar with Mata Hari, this is a very good start and will give the reader a pretty good idea who she was, what she was all about, and why she is still remembered today, for better or for worse.