Marcus Bloom (pictured above) was a businessman before he joined the Special Operations Executive (SOE) Marcus Bloom was an unlikely spy. A bon viveur who followed a playboy lifestyle of swish apartments, expense accounts and beautiful women, he was far from the dashing, image of a secret agent. He drove a pale blue convertible Delage classic car, an icon of French style, was often seen at the wheel sporting a white pilot's flying helmet, and owned a Great Dane called Sphinx. In his mid-30s with a balding head, reddish moustache and a figure turned decidedly portly from the good life, he even struggled to enlist at the start of World War Two.