Leo Marks — Code Poem

The life that I have – Marks' poem in memoriam.

8 January 1999

Of all the agents that Marks briefed there is one in particular – Violette Szabo – with whom he will always be linked. In 1943 Marks met and fell in love with a woman who lived in a neighbouring flat in the Edgware Road, but within three months she had been killed in an air-crash. When, early the next year, Szabo needed a code-poem for a mission in France, Marks gave her the lines that he had written for the dead woman. Curious, Szabo asked who had written them. 'I'll check up,' Marks told her, 'and let you know when you get back.' In fact, as Marks had feared, Szabo never returned, but was captured, tortured and eventually executed at Ravensbrück.

In 1958 a film of Szabo's life was made, named Carve Her Name With Pride starring Virginia McKenna as Szabo. In the film, before kneeling down to be shot in the back of the head (as was witnessed by another British agent in the camp), Szabo recites the code-poem Marks had given her. On the film's release, and despite Marks's request for anonymity, he was eventually named as the author of the poem. A recent survey of the The Nation's 100 Favourite Poems showed that 'The Life That I Have' is still in the top 20.

© Copyright 1999 The London Evening Standard & www.thisislondon.co.uk
I am most grateful to The Editor and Jeanette Arnold at The London Evening Standard for permission to reproduce this article.

Copyright © 1995-2007 Andy Forbes [except where stated] All rights reserved. www.64-baker-street.org