A DOWNPOUR in Glasgow has led to one of World War I's most alluring and enigmatic characters being uncovered in a new biography.

Mata Hari rose from despair to become an exotic dancing sensation of her day.

But she became deeply embroiled in the dark world of wartime espionage which was to lead to her execution for being a spy.

Borders biographer Mary Craig was back in her native city of Glasgow during the summer of 2013 when she fled into a second-hand bookstore for shelter.

And between the shelves an eared, dusty cover of a paperback caught her attention.

It was to be the start of a four-year journey which would take the Stow historian to archives, museums and libraries around Europe in search of the real Mata Hari.

Mary told the Border Telegraph: "I saw this old book which had such a lovely cover.

"It was about Mata Hari, who I knew next to nothing about. I read a few pages and it was terribly written so when I got home I looked online for more information about this woman.

"There had been books written about Mata Hari but a lot wasn't known about her... and I decided there and then to try and discover the truth."

Margaretha Zelle was born in the Dutch town of Leeuwarden in 1876.

In her late teens she answered a newspaper advertisement from an army captain who was looking for a wife to live with him in the Dutch East Indies.

Rudolf MacLeod turned out be an alcoholic who regularly beat his young bride.

Margaretha suffered further heartache with the death of her son.

After leaving her brute of a husband she was also to lose custody of her daughter.

From tragedy came triumph.

Under the artistic name Mata Hari she began to win fame in the clubs of Paris during the early years of the 20th century using the dancing techniques she'd learned while in the Indies.

Mary continued: "She became the exotic legend incarnate.

"She oozed sex appeal and charisma, and was guaranteed to give a great interview.

"The newspapers of the day loved her."

With her newly acquired fame came the web of lies which would eventually lead to her downfall.

She invented and reinvented her background story to please and appease.

And she became the mistress of millionaire industrialist Émile Étienne Guimet.

Mary explained: "A non-threatening fantasy figure, she was Indian, Javanese, Malaysian and a dozen inventions in-between.

"Had the Great War not happened, she would probably have remained a harmless figure on the margins of society, but celebrated in her own

way nonetheless.

"Her great misfortune was to live through a war that was so devastating, so brutal and so terrifying that fantasy could no longer be harmless, but had to be suspicious.

"The sex appeal of dance became the depravity of the wicked."

It was during the war years that the lies and deceipt intensified.

From Mary's initial online research back in Stow, she visited the National Archives in London to view original documents relating to Mata Hari's arrest and interrogation in the city.

For the next three years she would spend her days in the Archives de Paris, The British Library in London, both the Centraal Bureau voor Genealogie and National Archief in The Hague as well as the Fries Museum in Mata Hara's hometown of Leeuwarden as many other institutions across the continent.

And she has been rewarded with being able to beautifully relay one of the most remarkable stories of World War I.

Mata Hari was recruited by both the Germans and the French as a spy.

She was also almost recruited by the Russians as well, as the harmless fantasies and lies she had told on stage became part of the deadly game of double agents.

Struggling with the huge cost of war, the French authorities needed to catch a spy.

Mata Hari, the dancer, the courtesan, the fantasist, became the prize catch.

She was arrested by Scottish policeman George Grant at Falmouth in late 1916 and later provided a full, if not entirely true, confession.

Suspected of being a double-agent, French authorities arrested her the following February.

Mary added: "Throughout my three years of research and writing I was continually fascinated by Mata Hari - she is infectious.

"A Tangled Web has uncovered a lot of truths about her life but there are still a few questions remaining - with espionage you never quite know what is true.

"Mata Hari's trial records remain locked away and maybe one day I'll get to see them.

"Mystery will always surround Mata Hari - even after she was executed, her head went missing.

"A Tangled Web has been an amazing journey for me and I hope readers enjoy the story as much as I've had writing it."

A Tangled Web is published on July 29 to coincide with the with the 100th anniversary of Mata Hari's execution.

It can be pre-ordered from several online book stores.