What do you think?
Rate this book
Tommy Hambledon #1
Drink to Yesterday
Drink to Yesterday was based on the early life of one of its two collaborators, Cyril Henry Coles, who left school, lied about his age and enlisted as a teenager in the British army during World War I. He was transferred to intelligence when his remarkable aptitude for conversational German was noticed, and he became the youngest member of Britain’s Foreign Intelligence Office (later MI6). Like Bill Saunders of the book, Coles spent much of the rest of war working behind enemy lines. Coles and his collaborator, a Hampshire neighbor, Adelaide Oke Manning, chose to cast his story in the form of the novel so as not to run afoul of the Official Secrets Act. Grimmer than later books in the series, it’s also an ingenious circular story of murder, enlivened by the sardonic humor of Bill’s mentor, Tommy Hambledon.
191 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1940
About the author
Manning Coles
49 books10 followersFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
Manning Coles is the pseudonym of two British writers, Adelaide Frances Oke Manning (1891–1959) and Cyril Henry Coles (1899–1965), who wrote many spy thrillers from the early 40s through the early 60s. The fictional protagonist in 26 of their books was Thomas Elphinstone Hambledon, who works for the Foreign Office.
Manning and Coles were neighbors in East Meon, Hampshire. Coles worked for British Intelligence in both the World Wars. Manning worked for the War Office during World War I. Their first books were fairly realistic and with a touch of grimness; their postwar books perhaps suffered from an excess of lightheartedness and whimsy. They also wrote a number of humorous novels about modern-day ghosts, some of them involving ghostly cousins named Charles and James Latimer. These novels were published in England under the pseudonym of Francis Gaite but released in the United States under the Manning Coles byline.
Many of the original exploits were based on the real-life experiences of Coles, who lied about his age and enlisted under an assumed name in a Hampshire regiment during World War I while still a teenager. He eventually became the youngest officer in British intelligence, often working behind German lines, due to his extraordinary ability to master languages. Coles had 2 sons (Michael and Peter, who were identical twins and who are both still alive, living in the UK) and the Ghost stories were based on the tales he used to tell his young sons when he was 'back from his travels'.
Manning Coles is the pseudonym of two British writers, Adelaide Frances Oke Manning (1891–1959) and Cyril Henry Coles (1899–1965), who wrote many spy thrillers from the early 40s through the early 60s. The fictional protagonist in 26 of their books was Thomas Elphinstone Hambledon, who works for the Foreign Office.
Manning and Coles were neighbors in East Meon, Hampshire. Coles worked for British Intelligence in both the World Wars. Manning worked for the War Office during World War I. Their first books were fairly realistic and with a touch of grimness; their postwar books perhaps suffered from an excess of lightheartedness and whimsy. They also wrote a number of humorous novels about modern-day ghosts, some of them involving ghostly cousins named Charles and James Latimer. These novels were published in England under the pseudonym of Francis Gaite but released in the United States under the Manning Coles byline.
Many of the original exploits were based on the real-life experiences of Coles, who lied about his age and enlisted under an assumed name in a Hampshire regiment during World War I while still a teenager. He eventually became the youngest officer in British intelligence, often working behind German lines, due to his extraordinary ability to master languages. Coles had 2 sons (Michael and Peter, who were identical twins and who are both still alive, living in the UK) and the Ghost stories were based on the tales he used to tell his young sons when he was 'back from his travels'.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews
Read
November 22, 2022Absolutely cracking thriller of British spies in Germany in World War I. Tommy Hambledon makes his first appearance as a schoolteacher who lures young Michael into a life of espionage. Great detail as ever, but what's really good is the desperate bleakness and bravado, Michael's increasing drinking, the mistakes, the paranoia, the shame and guilt, the friendships developed with Germans that are real for all the false pretences. Much more serious than the rest of the books by this authorial team, and thoroughly compelling. You can tell that one of the authors had experience of living a double life, the weird shifting of identities and what it does to its people.
October 6, 2015
"It seemed only a dream that Dirk Brandt should also be an Englisham named Michael Kingston, who married a colonel's daughter whom he scarcely knew."
Entertaining if unromantic response to the thrilling adventures of Bulldog Drummond et al, paving the way for bleak realism in the espionage field for Le Carre et al to follow. A doomed protagonist in young Bill Saunders, brash young man with a flair for languages who joins the army two years early and finds himself as much by luck as design in the intelligence services billeted to Germany during The Great War, lends a brooding inevitability to proceedings from the opening chapter in which his inquest is held through to the fatal conflict which brought about said inquest. The circular nature of the narrative mirroring the state of mind of a spy who must always think in circles constantly second guessing himself and those around him.
"I'm in England again. I was going to say, home in England again, but I can't, somehow. Things are so difficult, the whole world has gone wrong."
And similarly the very nature of the work, being two men simultaneously, constantly deceiving somebody including yourself, leaves the opening chapter open to reinterpretation come the denouement when it is revisited. The fractures of the psyche of the spy become more apparent as time goes by, and is subtly incorporated in to the intrigue and daring escapades undertaken, the effects of a life in secret service to your country that aren't spoken about found not just in drink but in other smaller ways. This realisation of Michael/Bill/Dirk/Hans that Manning Coles touches on in serious tones is later explored in greater depth by Smiley's People, amongst others I'm sure, and never even considered by Ian Fleming.
Entertaining if unromantic response to the thrilling adventures of Bulldog Drummond et al, paving the way for bleak realism in the espionage field for Le Carre et al to follow. A doomed protagonist in young Bill Saunders, brash young man with a flair for languages who joins the army two years early and finds himself as much by luck as design in the intelligence services billeted to Germany during The Great War, lends a brooding inevitability to proceedings from the opening chapter in which his inquest is held through to the fatal conflict which brought about said inquest. The circular nature of the narrative mirroring the state of mind of a spy who must always think in circles constantly second guessing himself and those around him.
"I'm in England again. I was going to say, home in England again, but I can't, somehow. Things are so difficult, the whole world has gone wrong."
And similarly the very nature of the work, being two men simultaneously, constantly deceiving somebody including yourself, leaves the opening chapter open to reinterpretation come the denouement when it is revisited. The fractures of the psyche of the spy become more apparent as time goes by, and is subtly incorporated in to the intrigue and daring escapades undertaken, the effects of a life in secret service to your country that aren't spoken about found not just in drink but in other smaller ways. This realisation of Michael/Bill/Dirk/Hans that Manning Coles touches on in serious tones is later explored in greater depth by Smiley's People, amongst others I'm sure, and never even considered by Ian Fleming.
November 10, 2018
A while after we'd first moved into our current house, about twenty years ago, we discovered that what we'd assumed to be a bit of solid wall in the living room was a much-painted-over built-in storage chest, so to speak. Once we got the thing open it proved to be full of books, jammed in there willy-nilly years and more likely decades earlier. We knew that an older generation of the previous owners had been readers; to judge by the inscriptions in the books, these had been their light reading, thrust into the "wall" either for storage or, to judge by the way they'd been stuffed in, for insulation purposes. The mice had been at many of them, but a fair few were still in readable condition; some of these we gave to the local thrift shop and some I salvaged for myself, intending to read them in the near future.
Which is how I came to own a copy of Manning Coles's Drink to Yesterday. The near future proved to be not as near as I'd anticipated.
The novel was intended, according to the cover blurb, as a debunking of the Bulldog Drummond-style glamorized espionage story that was apparently then (1940) popular:
In Drink to Yesterday we have by contrast what seems like a fictionalized autobiographical piece, which is what it may very well in effect be: Cyril Coles, one half of "Manning Coles" (the other was Adelaide Manning), had served in British Intelligence.
At the outset of World War One, young Michael Kingston is desperate to enlist, but is too young. At length he lies about his name and age, becoming "Bill Saunders," and does some time in the trenches. However, the fact that he speaks fluent German singles him out as a potential recruit for the espionage people, and in due course he finds himself shipped across to Cologne as Dirk Brandt, a Boer who's arrived to help his Onkle Hendrik run the latter's import/export business.
In fact, as "Dirk" discovers, "Onkle Hendrik" is in real life his old schoolmaster Tommy Hambledon, the guy who got him interested in learning modern languages in the first place. (Hambledon, a rather Albert Campionesque figure, is missing presumed dead by the end of the novel; however, I see there are Tommy Hambledon books after this one, so I guess the news of his demise has been greatly exaggerated.)
"Dirk" and "Hendrik" engage in various acts of sabotage, espionage and murder. In a typical adventure, they kill an elderly scientist whom they suspect is behind a German effort to spread cholera on the British mainland, only to discover later that he was innocent -- had in fact forcefully refused to take part in the enterprise.
This theme -- that the two spies' actions are as like as not to prove fruitless or misdirected -- runs through the book and is a part of what gives it its quasi-autobiographical power. On the other hand, it can be frustrating, too, that so often strands of plot just meander off into nothingness rather than being neatly tied off. While reading Drink to Yesterday I was several times reminded of Eric Ambler's novel Cause for Alarm (1938), which appeared a couple of years earlier and has something of the same "memoir" feel to it; but Ambler was a better writer, and managed better to observe the conventions of the novel at the same time as creating the sense of authenticity.
Another disadvantage of basing fiction on autobiography is that some of the events that may well have been hilarious in real life seem pretty strained when presented on the page -- the pub raconteur's "You'd have died laughing if you'd been there" syndrome, with a vengeance. For example, there's a whole flipping chapter about the time when -- wheeze! chortle! -- "Dirk" for no apparent reason goes off on a drunken bender in Cologne and its environs, all the while having to keep reminding himself not to forget the name that he's just discovered of a Canadian saboteur. This chapter may have started off as a rattling good yarn to entertain while passing the port; as a chapter of an espionage novel, though, it seems stretched and artificial.
There are some signs of the novel's age. The writing (like Ambler's) seems relatively undated in style, but every now and then I was brought up short. On page 112, for example, we learn that bacteria are actually fungi, which I suppose (I haven't checked) must have been respectable current theory in 1940 (or maybe even in 1917). This led to a glorious moment a couple of pages later:
Drink to Yesterday, published in 1940, must have been written in the early months of World War Two, perhaps even before the outbreak of hostilities. One odd thing I found while reading the novel was that I had to keep reminding myself that it was Kaiserian Germans "Dirk" and "Hendrik" were dealing with and mixing among, not Nazis. The German Intelligence officer von Bodenheim, for example, has the same sort of zealotry, expressed in much the same way, as you'd expect to find associated with a Gestapo officer in a tale of the later war.
On page 58 we learn that a particular espionage activity was "interesting but rather dull," and I was tempted to apply the description to Drink to Yesterday as a whole. But that'd be unfair to the novel, because it isn't dull (although it has a couple of dullish sections, like the "drunken bender" chapter I mentioned). It clearly occupies a place of some significance in the history of the espionage novel, and would be well worth reading for that reason alone. And it's certainly entertaining even if, neglecting the rigors of plotting, it fails to deliver the sort of punch you'd expect.
I might even have been tempted to read the sequels . . . but presumably the mice got 'em.
Which is how I came to own a copy of Manning Coles's Drink to Yesterday. The near future proved to be not as near as I'd anticipated.
The novel was intended, according to the cover blurb, as a debunking of the Bulldog Drummond-style glamorized espionage story that was apparently then (1940) popular:
He carried the tray into his sitting room and read, while he was eating, a book the doctor had lent him called Bulldog Drummond. How delightfully easy the career of an Intelligence agent would be if only life were a little more like that! One went about upon entirely unlawful occasions armed with automatics and never, never met a policeman at the wrong moment. [page 259]
In Drink to Yesterday we have by contrast what seems like a fictionalized autobiographical piece, which is what it may very well in effect be: Cyril Coles, one half of "Manning Coles" (the other was Adelaide Manning), had served in British Intelligence.
At the outset of World War One, young Michael Kingston is desperate to enlist, but is too young. At length he lies about his name and age, becoming "Bill Saunders," and does some time in the trenches. However, the fact that he speaks fluent German singles him out as a potential recruit for the espionage people, and in due course he finds himself shipped across to Cologne as Dirk Brandt, a Boer who's arrived to help his Onkle Hendrik run the latter's import/export business.
In fact, as "Dirk" discovers, "Onkle Hendrik" is in real life his old schoolmaster Tommy Hambledon, the guy who got him interested in learning modern languages in the first place. (Hambledon, a rather Albert Campionesque figure, is missing presumed dead by the end of the novel; however, I see there are Tommy Hambledon books after this one, so I guess the news of his demise has been greatly exaggerated.)
"Dirk" and "Hendrik" engage in various acts of sabotage, espionage and murder. In a typical adventure, they kill an elderly scientist whom they suspect is behind a German effort to spread cholera on the British mainland, only to discover later that he was innocent -- had in fact forcefully refused to take part in the enterprise.
This theme -- that the two spies' actions are as like as not to prove fruitless or misdirected -- runs through the book and is a part of what gives it its quasi-autobiographical power. On the other hand, it can be frustrating, too, that so often strands of plot just meander off into nothingness rather than being neatly tied off. While reading Drink to Yesterday I was several times reminded of Eric Ambler's novel Cause for Alarm (1938), which appeared a couple of years earlier and has something of the same "memoir" feel to it; but Ambler was a better writer, and managed better to observe the conventions of the novel at the same time as creating the sense of authenticity.
Another disadvantage of basing fiction on autobiography is that some of the events that may well have been hilarious in real life seem pretty strained when presented on the page -- the pub raconteur's "You'd have died laughing if you'd been there" syndrome, with a vengeance. For example, there's a whole flipping chapter about the time when -- wheeze! chortle! -- "Dirk" for no apparent reason goes off on a drunken bender in Cologne and its environs, all the while having to keep reminding himself not to forget the name that he's just discovered of a Canadian saboteur. This chapter may have started off as a rattling good yarn to entertain while passing the port; as a chapter of an espionage novel, though, it seems stretched and artificial.
There are some signs of the novel's age. The writing (like Ambler's) seems relatively undated in style, but every now and then I was brought up short. On page 112, for example, we learn that bacteria are actually fungi, which I suppose (I haven't checked) must have been respectable current theory in 1940 (or maybe even in 1917). This led to a glorious moment a couple of pages later:
". . . It's odd, isn't it, to think of the germs of tuberculosis, of smallpox and of cholera as being vegetables? But they are."
Drink to Yesterday, published in 1940, must have been written in the early months of World War Two, perhaps even before the outbreak of hostilities. One odd thing I found while reading the novel was that I had to keep reminding myself that it was Kaiserian Germans "Dirk" and "Hendrik" were dealing with and mixing among, not Nazis. The German Intelligence officer von Bodenheim, for example, has the same sort of zealotry, expressed in much the same way, as you'd expect to find associated with a Gestapo officer in a tale of the later war.
On page 58 we learn that a particular espionage activity was "interesting but rather dull," and I was tempted to apply the description to Drink to Yesterday as a whole. But that'd be unfair to the novel, because it isn't dull (although it has a couple of dullish sections, like the "drunken bender" chapter I mentioned). It clearly occupies a place of some significance in the history of the espionage novel, and would be well worth reading for that reason alone. And it's certainly entertaining even if, neglecting the rigors of plotting, it fails to deliver the sort of punch you'd expect.
I might even have been tempted to read the sequels . . . but presumably the mice got 'em.
August 20, 2018
Great WW1 spy story!
July 30, 2021
see review on my blog My Reader's Block.
November 29, 2023
This began well with a man found dead in his house by his cleaning woman, we then follow the inquest to find out what happened once his body was discovered. The man was a former teacher in a boy's school. The jury are told they must decide whether his death was an accident or suicide. Then there is a jump to a boy at school, telling us something of his background. Mean while war is going on and the boy is determined to sign up to the army. He is underage, but being determined, he signs up under a false name and lies about his age. His first taste of the army is to be a foot-soldier, but it soon discovered that he knows both the French and German language, and he then enters the world of espionage.
The first half of the book was interesting and moved along well, but then it became pretty farfetched. I was surprised by the ending, when the beginning became clear
The first half of the book was interesting and moved along well, but then it became pretty farfetched. I was surprised by the ending, when the beginning became clear
February 15, 2021
This is a curious mystery. The novel, most notably, its structure and flow are shall we say "atypical". The flow of the tale is a quite peculiar especially within certain chapters. Nonetheless, the characters, setting, subject matter, and plot are quite interesting. As for the rating, this novel is better than a "3" but not quite a "4". I will read on within the series to see how things progress.
December 31, 2023
I found this a very touching book and, I imagine, a realistic look at spies and spying given the authors' lives. The dedication was poignant.
October 18, 2017
Not a comfortable book. A spy novel set during WWI, with British agents -- one gifted but very young -- undercover in Germany. Probably pretty realistic, since one of the authors was, in fact, a British agent. I am not sure whether to read the next book or not.
October 13, 2014
This is the first book by Manning Coles, a pseudonym for two co-authors (one of whom actually worked in British intelligence) who wrote a series of espionage novels in the forties and fifties featuring Tommy Hambledon, a British spy. The series covers decades, following Hambledon in action from the First World War up through the Cold War. In this one he and a young protege, Michael Kingston, are installed in Cologne in the last couple of years of the Great War, stealing secrets and doing dirty work for the British as Germany collapses around them.
I first read this book as a teenager, and I've re-read it a few times. It's the only one of the series I really like; the authors were not great prose stylists and some of the books are thin and a little silly. But this one has a seriousness that reflects the real-life catastrophe of that war; there are tragedies large and small along with the tradecraft and derring-do. Most of all, it conveys the emotional dislocations of men living long-term under assumed identities (and stress) and the resulting effects on their personalities and relationships. That makes it a classic of espionage fiction and well worth reading.
I first read this book as a teenager, and I've re-read it a few times. It's the only one of the series I really like; the authors were not great prose stylists and some of the books are thin and a little silly. But this one has a seriousness that reflects the real-life catastrophe of that war; there are tragedies large and small along with the tradecraft and derring-do. Most of all, it conveys the emotional dislocations of men living long-term under assumed identities (and stress) and the resulting effects on their personalities and relationships. That makes it a classic of espionage fiction and well worth reading.
August 12, 2016
A couple of melodramatic plot points aside- this was a fantastic espionage novel, and especially surprisingly cynical for something published in 1940. One half of the Manning Coles duo was an intelligence service veteran, and the strains of tradecraft are authentically written. I would even go so far as to say that the authors approached a proto-Le Carre type of spy novel with this one. (As Le Carre said he started writing spy-lit to provide an anti-James Bond point of view, Manning Coles similarly have the main character of this novel deriding Bulldog Drummond.) They don't glamorize the job, and in fact, take great pains to delineate the toll of intelligence work and clandestine action, for both practitioner and opponent. "Manning Coles" writes a story with an unusual amount of empathy for the German people, which is notable considering the atmosphere at the time. It gives the novel a very nuanced character. Fantastic book.
January 27, 2012
I found this to be surprisingly boring. It has all of the hallmarks of an autobiographical novel, as what should be tense moments dissolve quickly and easily (presumably, the true stories for which this does not happen rarely end well for the protagonist); some of the more typical, random, everyday things are described in unnecessary detail; and characters that clearly mean a lot to the author pop in now and again, even though the author makes no effort to ingratiate those characters to the reader (I have a theory about why the author was particularly cagey about Dixon). It is also far too fast-paced; the main character travels from one country to another with barely a mention, for example. It was easy to read, but not worth having done so.
October 28, 2015
This was OK although not what I was hoping for. It seems to be written as propaganda for spies, trying to humanize spies (which I had not considered they needed.) The story shows how a typical person might be recruited into intelligence work, and what kind of toll this type of job, along with war in general, can have on his personal life and psychological health. I was expecting and hoping for a murder mystery but it turns out to be more a case of someone's past catching up with him. Enjoyable and interesting read though. Good dialog that was charming and funny despite the grim events of the story.
July 9, 2021
This is a WWI spy/war novel from the English perspective, following Michael Kingston's time with British Intelligence and his work with his teacher Tommy Hambleton. The story has some really interesting high points but I did get confused at points especially in the chapter 'Second Honeymoon'. Keeping characters straight with multiple aliases is a challenge, but it is also used as a nice device to tell you the mindset the character is acting it depending on which alias is doing the speaking. Overall I think I enjoyed it but I still have questions.
June 30, 2013
A mixture of espionage and mystery set during World War I, this is the first in a series by the British writing duo Manning Coles. Although it is fairly short, the plot and cast of characters were complex. This one has a more somber tone than later installments in the series but still had a bit of quirkiness to it. The story blends in elements from the real-life intelligence activities of one of the authors and it remains a mystery to this day how much of what was included is fact and fiction.
December 5, 2009
When Patrick gave this to me, and I assumed it was a cozy little British mystery. in fact, it's a spy thriller set in WWI and a little grim in some parts. Overall, it was a good read and I finished it in a couple days.
October 8, 2012
Tommy Hambleton recruits one of his former students to spy for England in Germany during WWI. Despite trademark Manning Coles' humor, the futility of that war still comes through.
July 30, 2021
The story opens with a coroner's inquest on the body of a garage owner in Hampshire. He was found shot through the temple by his cleaning lady and the main question seems to be: Suicide or Accident. The police and the coroner both rule out murder as even a consideration. After a bit of a wrangle with one of the jurists, a verdict of "Death by Misadventure" brought in. Just as the the court adjourns, a woman shows up claiming to be his wife (nothing was known of the man's relations prior to this) and wishing to claim his body. Fade out....and off we go to flashback.
Michael Kingston is a bit uncomfortable at school. He likes being alone more than in large groups of boys and might like some of his fellow students if he had a chance to interact with them on his own terms rather than being stuck with them at all hours and and at any time. He's muddling along when Tommy Hambledon comes to teach them for a bit. Hambledon notices Kingston's aptitude for languages and tells him that if he takes up bookkeeping and modern languages (as opposed to classics), that it might come in handy some day.
There are other ways of making yourself useful to your country besides fighting, boy.
So, Kingston, who has come to admire Hambledon, follows his advice.
When World War I breaks out, Kingston, who is underage, longs to join up. He eventually does--using the name Bill Saunders and claiming an age which he has not attained (so much easier in those days...). When his unit captures some Germans and Kingston's language skills are noticed once more, he finds himself sent to the War Office where he is asked if he would like to help the war effort by going under cover in Germany. Without thinking about it at all, he says yes and finds himself once again under Hambledon's tutelage.
He enters Germany as Dirk Brandt, nephew to Hambledon's Hendrik Brandt. Hambledon is already established as a Dutch importer and now he has brought his nephew into the business. The two have quite a career in Germany--befriending a top-ranking German intelligence man by the name of von Bodenheim, foiling a German plan for super-Zeppelins, killing a scientist suspected of breeding cholera for germ warfare, and the eventual murder of von Bodenheim himself. Once the war is over, Kingston returns to England...where his past catches up with him in a little village in Hampshire.
This is the first book in the Tommy Hambledon series--which is odd, really. This is much more Michael Kingston's story than Hambledon's and... The book also seems to be (and internet scuttlebutt seems to indicate that it probably is) somewhat autobiographical in nature for the Cyril Henry Coles portion of the writing duo who made up Manning Coles*. Coles also lied about his age when he enlisted in World War I and wound up working for the War Office, was a master of languages, and worked behind German lines. It is an extraordinary look at the lives of undercover agents and the toll it must take on them. It shows Hambledon and Kingston as very human men with very human foibles--they do some great work for the British, but they also make mistakes and affect ordinary German citizens in ways that can scar both sides...and have consequences years later. It is both an exciting spy thriller and at times a depressing reminder of the toll war takes on everyone. I don't know if Coles planned that message, but it's definitely there. ★★★★
*Co-author = Adelaide Frances Oke Manning
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission to repost portions of review. Thanks.
Michael Kingston is a bit uncomfortable at school. He likes being alone more than in large groups of boys and might like some of his fellow students if he had a chance to interact with them on his own terms rather than being stuck with them at all hours and and at any time. He's muddling along when Tommy Hambledon comes to teach them for a bit. Hambledon notices Kingston's aptitude for languages and tells him that if he takes up bookkeeping and modern languages (as opposed to classics), that it might come in handy some day.
There are other ways of making yourself useful to your country besides fighting, boy.
So, Kingston, who has come to admire Hambledon, follows his advice.
When World War I breaks out, Kingston, who is underage, longs to join up. He eventually does--using the name Bill Saunders and claiming an age which he has not attained (so much easier in those days...). When his unit captures some Germans and Kingston's language skills are noticed once more, he finds himself sent to the War Office where he is asked if he would like to help the war effort by going under cover in Germany. Without thinking about it at all, he says yes and finds himself once again under Hambledon's tutelage.
He enters Germany as Dirk Brandt, nephew to Hambledon's Hendrik Brandt. Hambledon is already established as a Dutch importer and now he has brought his nephew into the business. The two have quite a career in Germany--befriending a top-ranking German intelligence man by the name of von Bodenheim, foiling a German plan for super-Zeppelins, killing a scientist suspected of breeding cholera for germ warfare, and the eventual murder of von Bodenheim himself. Once the war is over, Kingston returns to England...where his past catches up with him in a little village in Hampshire.
This is the first book in the Tommy Hambledon series--which is odd, really. This is much more Michael Kingston's story than Hambledon's and... The book also seems to be (and internet scuttlebutt seems to indicate that it probably is) somewhat autobiographical in nature for the Cyril Henry Coles portion of the writing duo who made up Manning Coles*. Coles also lied about his age when he enlisted in World War I and wound up working for the War Office, was a master of languages, and worked behind German lines. It is an extraordinary look at the lives of undercover agents and the toll it must take on them. It shows Hambledon and Kingston as very human men with very human foibles--they do some great work for the British, but they also make mistakes and affect ordinary German citizens in ways that can scar both sides...and have consequences years later. It is both an exciting spy thriller and at times a depressing reminder of the toll war takes on everyone. I don't know if Coles planned that message, but it's definitely there. ★★★★
*Co-author = Adelaide Frances Oke Manning
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission to repost portions of review. Thanks.
April 15, 2025
I'm just going to write about my experience with this book!
My mother read this when she was a teenager, and it started a lifelong interest of hers in spy novels and movies. She wanted to BE a spy. Her mother read it, too, and they often quoted Tommy Hambledon (I always thought she was saying "Hamilton"---this man is a character I've been hearing about all my life!). One expression jumped out at me, Tommy would call Michael/Bill/Dirk "my pippin", sometimes, and my mother has always said that, I had no idea it was maybe from this book! She read it multiple times and says it's the best one. She's been bugging me my whole life to read it, too, and I think I did start it as a teen, but wasn't really interested. My mother is now almost 87 and I'm 67 and she put it in my hands last week and said, READ IT!! So I did.
It WAS good, no denying. I did enjoy it. I have always thought it was a light-hearted James Bond type story, with Tommy H always coming out on top, and remaining insouciant, always. So I was surprised, that although many parts WERE fun, and young Mike/Bill/Dirk did so well it looked EASY, that there were also serious side-effects to this business. I have read WWII spy novels involving women and I stopped, because it's such a dangerous business and so scary it's sickening. I mean, this stuff is not fooling around. So poor Dirk really suffered when they made a mistake, or when he had to kill people he'd gotten to know and like, because, you know, they were the enemy! But undercover, you have to make friends! He spent most of the war in Germany and sometimes felt more German than English. It's a nasty business and I can't take it lightly. Not that serving on the front line is any less dangerous, but hey, it's quick.
It did have a surprise (to me!) ending, and left us with a bit of a cliff-hanger. I know there are more Tommy Hambledon novels. So?? But I'm not going to read any more, I just went to my mother to find out what happens in the second book.
Oh, and I kept thinking this was WWII, but it's not, it's WWI. I missed a reference to the Kaiser early on, and even some dates. And as my mother (who's had a stroke and can hardly talk) said, "it was published in 1940, so it's unlikely to be WWII! It just felt like the war we're more familiar with, and I thought, Did they even have Intelligence in WWI?? Well, obviously they did. And a lot else, besides. The Germans we met were so hungry and I thought, knowing the future, that it was sad that they wouldn't be seeing much food for a long, long, time.
My mother read this when she was a teenager, and it started a lifelong interest of hers in spy novels and movies. She wanted to BE a spy. Her mother read it, too, and they often quoted Tommy Hambledon (I always thought she was saying "Hamilton"---this man is a character I've been hearing about all my life!). One expression jumped out at me, Tommy would call Michael/Bill/Dirk "my pippin", sometimes, and my mother has always said that, I had no idea it was maybe from this book! She read it multiple times and says it's the best one. She's been bugging me my whole life to read it, too, and I think I did start it as a teen, but wasn't really interested. My mother is now almost 87 and I'm 67 and she put it in my hands last week and said, READ IT!! So I did.
It WAS good, no denying. I did enjoy it. I have always thought it was a light-hearted James Bond type story, with Tommy H always coming out on top, and remaining insouciant, always. So I was surprised, that although many parts WERE fun, and young Mike/Bill/Dirk did so well it looked EASY, that there were also serious side-effects to this business. I have read WWII spy novels involving women and I stopped, because it's such a dangerous business and so scary it's sickening. I mean, this stuff is not fooling around. So poor Dirk really suffered when they made a mistake, or when he had to kill people he'd gotten to know and like, because, you know, they were the enemy! But undercover, you have to make friends! He spent most of the war in Germany and sometimes felt more German than English. It's a nasty business and I can't take it lightly. Not that serving on the front line is any less dangerous, but hey, it's quick.
It did have a surprise (to me!) ending, and left us with a bit of a cliff-hanger. I know there are more Tommy Hambledon novels. So?? But I'm not going to read any more, I just went to my mother to find out what happens in the second book.
Oh, and I kept thinking this was WWII, but it's not, it's WWI. I missed a reference to the Kaiser early on, and even some dates. And as my mother (who's had a stroke and can hardly talk) said, "it was published in 1940, so it's unlikely to be WWII! It just felt like the war we're more familiar with, and I thought, Did they even have Intelligence in WWI?? Well, obviously they did. And a lot else, besides. The Germans we met were so hungry and I thought, knowing the future, that it was sad that they wouldn't be seeing much food for a long, long, time.
May 25, 2020
Major characters:
Michael Kingston, a.k.a. Bill Saunders, a.k.a Dirk Brandt
Diane, his wife
Tommy Hambledon, a.k.a. Hendrik Brandt
Dixon Ogilvie, Michael's school chum
Professor Amtenbrink, retired German scientist
Max von Bodenheim, German Intelligence
Denton, a.k.a. Ludwig Wolff
Kaspar Bluehm, a German
Marie Bluehm, his sister
Locale: France and Germany
Synopsis: Michael Kingston, underage, assumes the fake identity of Bill Saunders in order to join the British military. He is seen as a good prospect for intelligence work, and comes under the wing of Tommy Hambledon.
They team up, assuming the identities of Hendrik Brandt and his nephew Dirk. As Dirk Brandt, he infiltrates German intelligence, cultivating a friendship with Max von Bodenheim.
First they investigate whether retired professor Amtenbrink is involved in a German plot to drop cholera germs into England's water supplies.
Dirk manages to be sent to Ahlhorn (by the Germans) as a civilian security agent, where Zeppelins are being constructed. Dirk sabotages the Zeppelins with a fire, and is discovered to be a British agent. They arrange to be picked up at sea at night - Kingston makes it but Hambledon appears lost at sea.
Kingston (as Dirk) eventually returns to Germany, this time with agent Denton; who assumes the identity Ludwig Wolff.
Kingston matures through his adventures, and begins to regret marrying Diane; waiting at home for him.
Review:
This is the first Tommy Hambledon novel, however, the focus is not on him - but his protegé Michael Kingston. This is a not a slick sexy James Bond spy novel, it is more like a police procedural showing the not-always-exciting steps in intelligence work. It is somber at times, especially as it nears the end. They make mistakes and feel regret for them.
The first chapter is really the end of the story - chapters two forward are told in flashback.
Although I really enjoy the later Hambledons which are much lighter and funnier, it is good to see the genesis of the Hambledon story.
The sequel to this book is A Toast to Tomorrow, a.p.a. Pray Silence.
Michael Kingston, a.k.a. Bill Saunders, a.k.a Dirk Brandt
Diane, his wife
Tommy Hambledon, a.k.a. Hendrik Brandt
Dixon Ogilvie, Michael's school chum
Professor Amtenbrink, retired German scientist
Max von Bodenheim, German Intelligence
Denton, a.k.a. Ludwig Wolff
Kaspar Bluehm, a German
Marie Bluehm, his sister
Locale: France and Germany
Synopsis: Michael Kingston, underage, assumes the fake identity of Bill Saunders in order to join the British military. He is seen as a good prospect for intelligence work, and comes under the wing of Tommy Hambledon.
They team up, assuming the identities of Hendrik Brandt and his nephew Dirk. As Dirk Brandt, he infiltrates German intelligence, cultivating a friendship with Max von Bodenheim.
First they investigate whether retired professor Amtenbrink is involved in a German plot to drop cholera germs into England's water supplies.
Dirk manages to be sent to Ahlhorn (by the Germans) as a civilian security agent, where Zeppelins are being constructed. Dirk sabotages the Zeppelins with a fire, and is discovered to be a British agent. They arrange to be picked up at sea at night - Kingston makes it but Hambledon appears lost at sea.
Kingston (as Dirk) eventually returns to Germany, this time with agent Denton; who assumes the identity Ludwig Wolff.
Kingston matures through his adventures, and begins to regret marrying Diane; waiting at home for him.
Review:
This is the first Tommy Hambledon novel, however, the focus is not on him - but his protegé Michael Kingston. This is a not a slick sexy James Bond spy novel, it is more like a police procedural showing the not-always-exciting steps in intelligence work. It is somber at times, especially as it nears the end. They make mistakes and feel regret for them.
The first chapter is really the end of the story - chapters two forward are told in flashback.
Although I really enjoy the later Hambledons which are much lighter and funnier, it is good to see the genesis of the Hambledon story.
The sequel to this book is A Toast to Tomorrow, a.p.a. Pray Silence.
December 20, 2022
Interesting for historical reasons mainly. As another reader described it, the quote "interesting but rather dull," fits the story to a T. The book aspires to show what espionage is really like, and it's not a golorified 007 high action, but lots of boring everyday scenes, smoozing with people trying to guess their allegeance and figuring out if the information gathered is true or some kind of a trap.
Manning Coles was the pseudonym of two British writers, and it seems that the main character, an underage boy who loves to study languages, is based on one of the author's turn as a spy. It is more character driven, and you need to find these characters charming in order to plod on. I, however, found them rather boring and lackluster.
The main issues are betreyal and guilt. They grow attached to the enemy they associate with, and that unfortunately doesn't go well with the interest of the country. Past actions seem to haunt the main character. Having executed an innocent man for example, or having feelings for a german girl, he could not marry. There is lots of guilt and grim reality. And the story does feel rather true to life.
Manning Coles was the pseudonym of two British writers, and it seems that the main character, an underage boy who loves to study languages, is based on one of the author's turn as a spy. It is more character driven, and you need to find these characters charming in order to plod on. I, however, found them rather boring and lackluster.
The main issues are betreyal and guilt. They grow attached to the enemy they associate with, and that unfortunately doesn't go well with the interest of the country. Past actions seem to haunt the main character. Having executed an innocent man for example, or having feelings for a german girl, he could not marry. There is lots of guilt and grim reality. And the story does feel rather true to life.
March 27, 2025
3.5 stars
POV: 3rd person, past tense
The story opens with a coroner's inquest, determining the means of death of one Michael Kensington. Eventually, the jury decides that it was suicide, and the case is closed. We then flash back to Michael at 16, getting ready to go to war. He enlists at 17 and is rapidly transferred to the secret service because of his ease with different languages. Throughout most of the war, Michael is engaged behind enemy lines, determining what is good information and what isn't. He and his compatriot do things that they aren't necessarily proud of, but have to be done. With the end of the war, many of the people that Michael knows on both sides are gone, and little is left for him to do, so he settles in a little town and opens a garage, little thinking that he could survive the war only to fall afterward.
Very interesting mystery. I also really enjoyed the descriptions of the war, and all that happened afterward; it felt very realistic. It should, since both authors had experience in the war. Engaging and well written.
POV: 3rd person, past tense
The story opens with a coroner's inquest, determining the means of death of one Michael Kensington. Eventually, the jury decides that it was suicide, and the case is closed. We then flash back to Michael at 16, getting ready to go to war. He enlists at 17 and is rapidly transferred to the secret service because of his ease with different languages. Throughout most of the war, Michael is engaged behind enemy lines, determining what is good information and what isn't. He and his compatriot do things that they aren't necessarily proud of, but have to be done. With the end of the war, many of the people that Michael knows on both sides are gone, and little is left for him to do, so he settles in a little town and opens a garage, little thinking that he could survive the war only to fall afterward.
Very interesting mystery. I also really enjoyed the descriptions of the war, and all that happened afterward; it felt very realistic. It should, since both authors had experience in the war. Engaging and well written.
August 30, 2020
Written in response to “ripping yarns” about dashing and romantic war heroes, Drink to Yesterday follows a novice espionage agent and his experienced handler through a series of missions in Germany during World War I. What is remarkable about the book is that it acknowledges the imperfect knowledge and the dearth of information agents often have, and the guesswork that agents must employ before taking action. These spies mess up - they interpret signals incorrectly, they assassinate the wrong targets, they fail to get messages sent, they play situations wrong. And yet, all is rationalized away with the attitude of “all’s fair in love and war.” The book is inconsistent in tone, style, and pacing, and only really begins to examine the psychic cracks and traumas of war near the very end (which was one of its most compelling chapters), but is interesting as a kind of historical bridge in spy literature between rip-roaring war stories and gritty Cold War dramas.
November 23, 2023
As the second book in this series has been chosen for one of my Goodreads groups, I decided to read the first (yes, I am admittedly very pedantic and dislike reading books out of order). This opens with an inquest in Hampshire, 1924. A cleaner arrives to find her employer dead, his favourite glass smashed, himself shot. The jury question events, but are firmly told the verdict should be suicide or accident...
We then go back to learn about Michael Kingston, a schoolboy whose teacher is Tommy Hambleton. Later, in WWI, after one of Michael's schoolfriends joins up, he runs away, lies about his age and is sent to France. However, all those modern language lessons at school result in him being involved in early espionage and, from this point, this is very much a Boy's Own adventure. Good fun, quite exciting and, hopefully, a good introduction to the next in the series which I will be reading soon.
We then go back to learn about Michael Kingston, a schoolboy whose teacher is Tommy Hambleton. Later, in WWI, after one of Michael's schoolfriends joins up, he runs away, lies about his age and is sent to France. However, all those modern language lessons at school result in him being involved in early espionage and, from this point, this is very much a Boy's Own adventure. Good fun, quite exciting and, hopefully, a good introduction to the next in the series which I will be reading soon.
Read
February 21, 2023Drink to Yesterday was written by Manning Coles, a pseudonym for two authors. Adelaide Frances Oak Manning and Cyril Henry Coles who wrote many spy thrillers from the early '40's to the early '60's. They wrote 26 novels featuring the character Thomas Elphinstone Hambledon, who works for the Foreign Office. They also wrote one collection of short stories featuring the character, two novels without the character (one by Manning alone) and six ghost novels under the name Francis Gaite.
Drink to Yesterday follows Michael Kingston who, after he signs up as a private in 1915 is singled out by Tommy Hambledon to work undercover for British Intelligence. His life and loyalties become divided as he becomes more and more involved with his work as an agent.
A well written spy novel that is very readable but also very believable. Recommended.
Drink to Yesterday follows Michael Kingston who, after he signs up as a private in 1915 is singled out by Tommy Hambledon to work undercover for British Intelligence. His life and loyalties become divided as he becomes more and more involved with his work as an agent.
A well written spy novel that is very readable but also very believable. Recommended.
November 28, 2022
Lots of trolley-problem type reasoning in this, mostly from experienced older spy Tommy Hambledon to young infant spy Michael Kingston, e.g.: "I tell you, I hated killing [X]. But I would kill him again tomorrow and again the next day and again every day for a fortnight before there is one little cholera outbreak in one street in London."
To the book's credit, we later find out that X had nothing whatsoever to do with the planned cholera attack our heroes are trying to prevent.
I liked this more than I thought I was going to. Quite a sad book, really: I wonder if the later ones are more chipper, once the authors are into the swing of their Tommy Hambledonning.
To the book's credit, we later find out that X had nothing whatsoever to do with the planned cholera attack our heroes are trying to prevent.
I liked this more than I thought I was going to. Quite a sad book, really: I wonder if the later ones are more chipper, once the authors are into the swing of their Tommy Hambledonning.
June 22, 2021
I found this book at a thrift store. It had a good review on the back cover by Rex Stout, author of the Nero Wolfe series, so I ponied up the twenty-five cents and gave it a shot.
Set in WWI, an English high school student wants to join the war. He's rejected multiple times because he's too young, but he finds a way. He's a natural candidate for intelligence, and this is the story of his experience in the war, and how it ties in to a mystery later in his life.
It's a three-novel book, so I'm interested enough to read the second one.
Set in WWI, an English high school student wants to join the war. He's rejected multiple times because he's too young, but he finds a way. He's a natural candidate for intelligence, and this is the story of his experience in the war, and how it ties in to a mystery later in his life.
It's a three-novel book, so I'm interested enough to read the second one.
December 27, 2022
A World War ! spy thriller wrapped in a mystery. Very good but more somber than I had expected--it brilliantly evokes the way a secret agent can start to care for and be part of the society in which he is embedded.
December 22, 2023
Manning Coles Rocks
I read the Tommy Hambeldon books when I was in middle school and on. Thwriters were there. All of the books have these great description of 110 years gone. This one, the first book is sad, but oh so real.
I read the Tommy Hambeldon books when I was in middle school and on. Thwriters were there. All of the books have these great description of 110 years gone. This one, the first book is sad, but oh so real.
July 7, 2024
excellent book.
I still remembered a lot of this book after forty plus years. A hard non-glamorous spy novel about the cost of war on individuals. Not sentimental, but unsparing about how necessity and chance can change people and their fates.
I still remembered a lot of this book after forty plus years. A hard non-glamorous spy novel about the cost of war on individuals. Not sentimental, but unsparing about how necessity and chance can change people and their fates.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews