Edward Wilson: Portrait of the Spy as a Young Man

‘The one who escaped prison on a minority verdict and became a successful novelist?’

‘With one of his books turned into a film starring Richard Burton. If you don’t get hanged for treason or war crimes, you can sell your memoirs.’

‘Are you cynical?’

‘No, your existence has taught me not to be.’

The cat flap sounded.

‘It’s already fish-o’clock,’ said Catesby picking up a tin opener.

‘While you’re looking after Thomas, I’m going to start cooking you supper.’ She began to gather up her notes.

‘You’re never to going to finish it.’

‘Supper?’

‘No, your memoir about me.’

‘I’m certainly going to try, Granddad, and with your help we’ll get there.’

‘It’s impossible. There is no such thing as a complete life story – not of anyone’s life. There are always chapters left untold.’

Leanna got up to leave for the house. She suddenly stopped and looked at her grandfather. ‘Did I hear you singing?’

‘No, I was humming.’

‘What is it?’

‘It’s a song the Lowestoft girls used to sing on May Day when they went out collecting. I didn’t go with them, but I used to sing it with my sister – who loved it.’

‘Can you sing it?’

‘No.’

‘Please, Granddad, for me.’

‘It’s only a silly old thing.’

‘Please.’

‘Well, since you’re doing supper and it’s a cooking song, I’ll sing it.

Climbing up the walls,

Knocking down the spiders,

Cabbages and turnips too,

Put them in your Hallelujah saucepan,

Then we’ll have a rare old stew.’

Catesby’s eyes had a faraway look.

‘What are you thinking about, Granddad?’

‘I wonder if she’s still alive.’

‘If who is still alive?’

‘The one who tried to tell me that wherever you go and whatever happens – and no matter how high you climb that wall – you will always regret what you lost.’

‘Was she right?’

Catesby smiled at his granddaughter. ‘No, she wasn’t.’

‘Thank you, Granddad.’ She leaned forward to give him a hug and disappeared to the kitchen.

Alone now, he watched two young song thrushes foraging in the hedge. They could manage on their own. Catesby wasn’t rich, but he loved the luxury of an English country garden. It was a consolation for old age. He knew he was lucky. The faces of those who hadn’t been lucky paraded before his eyes. He did the maths that separated him from his war-dead colleagues. Most had bought it in ’43 and ’44 – seventy-five years ago. More than a lifetime. All that remained of them were the memories of those few of their generation who were still alive – and those memories would soon turn to dust.

Acknowledgements

Once again, warmest thanks to Julia for her support. It isn’t easy living with an author at the best of times, but doing so during a pandemic lockdown requires special reserves of patience and selflessness.

Special thanks to my agent, Maggie Hanbury, who has now represented me for more than twenty years. Maggie’s guidance and professionalism have led me through many stormy seas. She is a star.

I am grateful to my publisher, Piers Russell-Cobb, for continuing to be an enthusiastic champion of me and my books. Piers also deserves praise for looking after the health and safety of his staff during the pandemic. I also want to thank Joe Harper at Arcadia Books for his ever cheerful help and efficiency.

I am very privileged to have Martin Fletcher and Angeline Rothermundt as my editors. This is the fourth time that Martin has helped turn my raw plots into a polished and coherent narrative. His advice has always stimulated creativity and made me try harder. I want to give a special thanks to Angeline who has now edited seven of my books. She has, over the years, consistently calmed the excesses of my prose and saved me from countless embarrassments.

I am enormously grateful to Tessa Harding for giving me access to the unpublished memoirs of her father, Ewan Phillips, who was a very important and utterly fascinating figure in the art world of twentieth-century Britain. As a young man, Phillips was active in anti-fascist activities during the 1930s. He was a founding member of the Artists’ Refugee Committee and worked on the 1938 London exhibition, German Art of the 20th Century , to counter Hitler’s Degenerate Art exhibition. In the aftermath of the war, Phillips, serving as a captain in the Intelligence Corps, was assigned to the Monuments, Fine Art and Archives unit which was tasked with the retrieval of lost and looted works of art. Although the Ewan Phillips portrayed in my book is a totally fictional character, his memoir was an enormous creative stimulus.

I want to give a note of thanks to Lourina K. de Voogd for looking at and correcting the Flemish phrases in my book. Lourina is a highly skilled linguist whose career speciality was providing library services to multicultural populations.

Finally, I would like to emphasise that this book is a novel. At no point have I tried to be a historian or biographer. A number of real historic events are referred to in this book, but those events are completely fictionalised. Likewise, a few real names are used, but no real people are portrayed. This is a work of fiction. When I have used official titles and positions, I do not suggest that the persons who held those positions in the past are the same persons portrayed in the novel or that they have spoken, thought or behaved in the way I have imagined.

Bibliography

Cobb, Matthew (2009), The Resistance: The French fight against the Nazis (London: Simon & Schuster)

Foot, M.R.D. (2014), SOE: An Outline History of the Special Operations Executive 1940-1946 (London: The Bodley Head)

Kladstrup, Don and Petie with Dr J, Kim Munholland, Historical Consultant (2001), Wine and War: The French, the Nazis and the Battle for France’s Greatest Treasure (London: Hodder & Stoughton)

Le Dantec, Jean-Pierre (2015), Un Héros: Vie et Mort de Georges Guingouin (Paris: Gallimard)

Phillips, Ewan, unpublished memoir

Piquet-Wicks, Eric (1959), Four in the Shadows: A Tmaquisrue Story of Espionage in Occupied France (London: The Adventurers Club)

Special Operations Executive and The National Archive (2014), Special Operations Executive Manual: How to be an Agent in Occupied Europe (London: William Collins)

Stroud, Rick (2017), Lonely Courage: The True Story of the SOE heroines who fought to free Nazi-occupied France (London: Simon & Schuster)

Taubmann, Michel (2011), L’affaire Guingouin: La véritable histoire du premier Maquisard de France (La Geneytouse: Editions Lucien Souny)

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