A fascinating look at spy fiction and spy games. Part literary review, part history. It was complicated and toothy - everything you want from a book like this!

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Rowman & Littlefield for an advanced copy of this book about the real world adventures of certain writers, who parlayed these events into their later fictional writings, some of which have become classics in the espionage genre.

Mark Twain once, or at least that is the official story, said "Write what you know." This is valuable advice to many writers, but for writers with a particular set of skills and a history working for the government, this can be hard. Britain has the Official Secrets Acts which can hold publication on writings they consider a little too close to home. America also has a vetting program for writers who once worked in certain parts of the clandestine services, making sure things that should be secret stay secret. Though what one considers secret can range far and wide. During the Second World War many people who went on to become quite famous in the post-war era literary spy scene worked for the British Government, in many different arenas. An unconventional war needed unique thinking, and people with a gift for both larceny, and fiction could find a safe office to work in. Though how they wrote about their time in the service differed in many ways. Counterfeit Spies: How World War II Intelligence Operations Shaped Cold War Spy Fiction by educator and writer Oliver Buckton is a look at these writers, their war time and Cold War experiences, and the works they created based on what they knew, but had to pretend they did not.

The book starts with a detailing of many writers who worked both during the Second World War, and and during the cold peace, that seemed hot in many way. Authors like Graham Greene, who had been publishing before the war, Ian Fleming who was a journalist in the past, Helen MacInnes and others. Buckton discusses the Official Secrets Acts and how a few writers tried to skirt around the wall this put up in writing about wartime events, even years later. Buckton describes a few of the bigger events including Agent Garbo, and Operation Mincemeat, familiar from other books and movies, and how writers drew from these events, without getting into trouble by adding enough fiction to squeak by. Buckton also looks at the points of view of various writers. Greene's calling of his books entertainments, to separate from his more or what he considered his more important works. Ian Fleming's unflagging love for England and its powerful espionage efforts, even as history was proving England intelligence services were severely infiltrated. Even David Cornwall aka John le Carré and his doubts about espionage, and how everything about spying was rotten and wrong, and easily turned on the innocent.

A fascinating book that mixes history with literature in a way that one doesn't really see. Yes this might come up in biographies, but rarely does a historian look at an event from both a nonfictional and fictional point of view. Buckton has done a lot of research and it shows, with plenty of examples from various writers, with the addition of real world facts. Buckton is a very good writers and keeps everything moving, and even more importantly doesn't get caught in minutiae, which when writing about writers is easy to do. The characters were all characters in real life, with a few exceptions, and there are lots of anecdotes, and information.

A perfect book for readers of history who love spy books. If nothing else one gets the urge to read this books, and maybe find a few authors the reader didn't know about. I quite enjoyed this book, and look forward to more books by Oliver Buckton.

A detailed and addictive look at some classic spy novels.

As noted by author Oliver Buckton in his introduction, this book started life as a research project for a university Scholars Award. This is borne out by the lengthy and comprehensive bibliography at the back, so his dedication to research is outstanding. And as a work of non-fiction, fans of spy novels will undoubtedly devour its near-300 pages. However, its origins as a thesis do shine through, so the going is a bit slow in places.

"Counterfeit Spies" is an exploration of the role played by some spy novelists during World War II. It examines those authors who had a background in intelligence operations, as well as those who simply wrote good stories. The author's research into the involvement of the writers in wartime operations such as Operation Mincemeat and how those operations would later impact their work, is detailed and makes use of many anecdotes and evidence of the time. Authors including Ian Fleming, John le Carré Dennis Wheatley, and Graham Greene, all of whom were employed by the intelligence services are mentioned.

The early chapters, each of which starts with a fiction-like third person episode that prefaces the discussion to follow, examine real-life events such as Enigma and the Philby defection. However, it's the chapters devoted to three particular authors which many fictions fans like myself will probably be drawn to - Helen MacInness, Dennis Wheatley and John Bingham are each examined in detail, and by the use of numerous examples from their works, demonstrates how close they came to portraying real-life events (remember some of their novels were published during or just after WW2). Fans will be rapidly moving between the text and bibliography so learn more! The depth of some of the background is impressive, and the discussion around (for example) "gender and marriage in MacInnes's fiction" are thought-provoking, as is the section concerning Dennis Wheatley's "Gregory Sallust and James Bond" .

The author, Oliver Buckton, is professor of English at Florida Atlantic University, and has published works on Ian Fleming, Bond and Espionage in British Literature, so his credentials are not to be questioned. I'm not a huge fan of non-fiction, so not in a position to decide how much new information this book delivers, but the discussion and reflection on how fiction reflects real-life is fascinating. But Buckton is an American, writing about (mainly) British writers, and this does come through in some of his writing - just an observation, not necessarily a criticism.

I have no hesitation in recommending this to fans of spy literature - fiction and non-fiction. I was lucky to be offered a Netgalley review copy but I'll be first in the queue for a proper cop0y when it's release.