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I Spy: The Secret Life of a British Agent
This is the authors story of his father, parachuted into Yugoslavia for the Briitish Special Operaions Executive in WW2 , an operation which saw him locked up for the rest of the war in a German fortress , and then given the dangerous assignment of running the Relly network for the Secret Intelligence Service in Cold War Hungary. His son and his Russian born wife barely saw Kavan Ellliott in those years, or after he decamped to Jamiaca out of range of alimony demands . Geoffrey Elliott has gone deep into the British Yugoslav and Hungarian archives to fill in the many intriguing blanks about the father he hardly knew.
304 pages, Paperback
First published March 5, 1998
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 9, 2015
For the sheer quality of its writing, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that this is one of the best books—maybe THE best—I've ever read.
It doesn't hurt, of course, that I write espionage thrillers, so there's a sense in which I'm bound to favour a book of this genre. And, to be totally honest, the amazingly immersive writing style threw me a curve ball to start with. But, once I'd become used to Geoffrey Elliott's metaphor-laden form and long sentence structure I found it absolutely addictive.
Elliott Junior, the writer, follows a trail of breadcrumbs to learn about a father he only vaguely knew from the briefest visits between covert missions. Kavan Elliott was an espionage agent, a hero, a legend and a dead-beat dad all rolled into one, fulfilling an almost unknown but very important role in the Second World War and the period immediately preceding. His existence was far from perfect, but immensely interesting. The book documents Kavan's life and exploits, and all the circumstances—from personal to global—that surrounded them in great detail and with picturesque narrative that draws the reader in and keeps the pages passing from right to left.
I mostly read in the evenings, but 'I Spy' made me want to read all day. This is a great book and one I will doubtless be devouring again soon - and it's not very often I say that. Unhesitatingly five stars and a big smile on this reader's face. Material of the caliber of 'I Spy' is why I read.
It doesn't hurt, of course, that I write espionage thrillers, so there's a sense in which I'm bound to favour a book of this genre. And, to be totally honest, the amazingly immersive writing style threw me a curve ball to start with. But, once I'd become used to Geoffrey Elliott's metaphor-laden form and long sentence structure I found it absolutely addictive.
Elliott Junior, the writer, follows a trail of breadcrumbs to learn about a father he only vaguely knew from the briefest visits between covert missions. Kavan Elliott was an espionage agent, a hero, a legend and a dead-beat dad all rolled into one, fulfilling an almost unknown but very important role in the Second World War and the period immediately preceding. His existence was far from perfect, but immensely interesting. The book documents Kavan's life and exploits, and all the circumstances—from personal to global—that surrounded them in great detail and with picturesque narrative that draws the reader in and keeps the pages passing from right to left.
I mostly read in the evenings, but 'I Spy' made me want to read all day. This is a great book and one I will doubtless be devouring again soon - and it's not very often I say that. Unhesitatingly five stars and a big smile on this reader's face. Material of the caliber of 'I Spy' is why I read.
February 1, 2013
Fascinating.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews