Roald Dahl And The British Spy Ring In Wartime Washington

By Jennet Conant

The title sounds like the spies needed more fiber. I would have called it “Willy Wonka’s War” after Dahl’s most famous children’s book. Text from DJCline.com

Jennet Conant has written two other books about the same period. The first, Tuxedo Park, covered an eccentric New York millionaire’s foray into radar technology before WWII. The second, 109 East Palace was about the day to day life at Los Alamos. This third book deals with writer Roald Dahl’s friendly spying on the Roosevelt’s during the war. Text from DJCline.com

This is pretty familiar territory to anyone who knows the period. Millionaires Bill Stephenson and Bill Donovan built a British/American spy network that included Noel Coward and Ian Fleming. They picked delightful, witty, funny people to meet and make friends. Text from DJCline.com

After risking his life in combat for the RAF, Dahl was forced to go to parties and events and report what he heard. He had to have romantic liasons with beautiful wealthy women. I suppose he closed his eyes and thought of England. Nice work if you can get it.

All this infuriated FBI’s J. Edgar Hoover, with good reason. The problem with allowing friendly spy networks in the country is that unfriendly KGB spies like Kim Philby and Guy Burgess can infiltrate them. In order to win one war, they set the stage for future wars, some we are still fighting today.

I think Conant has mined WWII pretty well at this point. I’d like to see what she can tell us about the Cold War that we do not already know. Text from DJCline.com

Copyright 2008 DJ Cline All rights reserved.

Posted by dj in Books, Reviews [816 Views]