Noor Inayat Khan: how British spy's love for blue betrayed her

A new book reveals 29-year-old was captured by the Gestapo in 1943 after her clothing gave her away

She was the daughter of an Indian Sufi mystic, who gave her life as a British agent fighting with the French resistance and for the cause of freedom. Now, 76 years after 29-year-old Noor Inayat Khan was captured by the Gestapo and executed in the Dachau concentration camp, a previously-unpublished account reveals that it was her love of the colour blue that betrayed her to the enemy.

The author of a forthcoming book has had access to a memoir that sheds new light on a heroine who, in sending vital messages back to London as a wireless operator behind enemy lines, significantly aided the success of the allied landing on D-day. Codenamed Madeleine, she became a high-value target for the Gestapo.