John Buchan is the father of the modern spy thriller. This is so even though the Hannay books are not, strictly speaking, about spies at all in the professional sense of the word. They are about penetration of the enemy, about lonely escape and wild journeys, about the thin veneer that stands between civilsation and barbarism.

This unique and perceptive history unravels geopolitical intrigues and reveals how they have influenced the authors who fashioned one of the most popular forms of entertainment in the literate world the spy novel. Espionage fiction is one of the most popular forms of entertainment in the literate world and, since its widespread acceptance in the early twentieth century, it has sought to pursue the secret politics of Western social order. Drawn from reality, exposing what is generally concealed, it provides a unique glimpse into the darker, more conspiratorial affairs of state through the use of fictional covert actions, double agents, treason, and international intrigues. It is a carefully crafted, clandestine venue wherein the situations are circumscribed, the moods are forever gray, and the heroes if indeed there are heroes generally emerge as ordinary individuals who believe that virtues such as truth and loyalty are simply matters of convenience. People who are, in fact, not that much different from those whom they oppose. The concept of neutral ground the term adapted from Sir Walter Scott s early nineteenth century Waverly novels originally spoke to the geographic region between two warring armies, a place controlled by neither but marked by fluid jurisdictions drawn by the ebb and flow of strategic influences or battle lines. But with the passage of time, and the refinement of espionage fiction, the definition of neutral ground witnessed a transition, emerging as both metaphor and cautionary note for the thematic conflicts and doubts that flourish in the absence of clear political authority. An intellectual nether region reminiscent perhaps of Cold War Berlin that affords conflicting parties unrestricted rights of passage and where political ideology and literary fiction can and do seamlessly intersect. Yet, in the grander historical sense, the evolution of espionage fiction also reflects the history of a culture for, as the genre evolved, so too did Western society. To explore these historical relationships Neutral Ground: A Political History of Espionage Fiction takes the reader behind the fiction and explores the real-world political, military, and diplomatic events that have consistently and significantly threaded their way through the fabric of the genre. Against this historical timeline, it examines how numerous authors including Rudyard Kipling, Somerset Maugham, Graham Greene, and John le Carra(r) have engaged reality in order to write the espionage novels that have become literary classics and, in selected cases, have also served to alter the course of government policy."

Like many men of his generation, poet Robert Graves was indelibly marked by his experience of trench warfare in World War I. The horrific battles in which he fought and his guilt over surviving when so many perished left Graves shell-shocked and disoriented, desperately seeking a way to bridge the rupture between his conventional upbringing and the uncertainties of postwar British society. In this study of Graves's early poetry, Frank Kersnowski explores how his war neurosis opened a door into the unconscious for Graves and led him to reject the essential components of the Western idea of reality—reason and predictability. In particular, Kersnowski traces the emergence in Graves's early poems of a figure he later called "The White Goddess," a being at once terrifying and glorious, who sustains life and inspires poetry. Drawing on interviews with Graves's family, as well as unpublished correspondence and drafts of poems, Kersnowski argues that Graves actually experienced the White Goddess as a real being and that his life as a poet was driven by the purpose of celebrating and explaining this deity and her matriarchy.

At a time when the methods and purposes of intelligence agencies are under a great deal of scrutiny, author Wesley Britton offers an unprecedented look at their fictional counterparts. In Beyond Bond: Spies in Film and Fiction, Britton traces the history of espionage in literature, film, and other media, demonstrating how the spy stories of the 1840s began cementing our popular conceptions of what spies do and how they do it. Considering sources from Graham Greene to Ian Fleming, Alfred Hitchcock to Tom Clancy, Beyond Bond looks at the tales that have intrigued readers and viewers over the decades. Included here are the propaganda films of World War II, the James Bond phenomenon, anti-communist spies of the Cold War era, and military espionage in the eighties and nineties. No previous book has considered this subject with such breadth, and Britton intertwines reality and fantasy in ways that illuminate both. He reveals how most themes and devices in the genre were established in the first years of the twentieth century, and also how they have been used quite differently from decade to decade, depending on the political concerns of the time. In all, Beyond Bond offers a timely and penetrating look at an intriguing world of fiction, one that sometimes, and in ever-fascinating ways, can seem all too real. At a time when the methods and purposes of intelligence agencies are under a great deal of scrutiny, author Wesley Britton offers an unprecedented look at their fictional counterparts. In Beyond Bond: Spies in Film and Fiction, Britton traces the history of espionage in literature, film, and other media, demonstrating how the spy stories of the 1840s began cementing our popular conceptions of what spies do and how they do it. Considering sources from Graham Greene to Ian Fleming, Alfred Hitchcock to Tom Clancy, Beyond Bond looks at the tales that have intrigued readers and viewers over the decades. Included here are the propaganda films of World War II, the James Bond phenomenon, anti-communist spies of the Cold War era, and military espionage in the eighties and nineties. No previous book has considered this subject with such breadth, and Britton intertwines reality and fantasy in ways that illuminate both. He reveals how most themes and devices in the genre were established in the first years of the twentieth century, and also how they have been used quite differently from decade to decade, depending on the political concerns of the time. And he delves into such aspects of the genre as gadgetry, technology, and sexuality-aspects that have changed with the times as much as the politics have. In all, Beyond Bond offers a timely and penetrating look at an intriguing world of fiction, one that sometimes, and in ever-fascinating ways, can seem all too real.

English actor Dirk Bogarde dominated the films in which he starred. Exploring the tension between his matinee idol appeal and his own closeted sexuality, this book focuses on the wide variety of genres in which he worked, and the highly charged interaction between his life and his roles. Beginning with an expose of gay life in post-war Britain and his relationship with partner/manager, Anthony Forwood, each chapter explores Bogarde's performances by genre--his juvenile delinquent movies, his military roles, his contribution to Basil Dearden's overtly gay thriller Victim (1961), and his "outsider" roles in such films as The Servant (1963), The Fixer (1968) and Despair (1978). Bogarde's "camp" cinema, espionage thrillers and various roles as artists are also examined, along with the misogyny of the Doctor films and his later television work.

Beyond Gold and Diamonds demonstrates the importance of southern Africa to British literature from the 1880s to the 1920s, from the rise of the systematic exploitation of the region's mineral wealth to the aftermath of World War I. It focuses on fiction by the colonial-born Olive Schreiner, southern Africa's first literary celebrity, as well as by H. Rider Haggard, Gertrude Page, and John Buchan, its most influential authorial informants, British authors who spent significant time in the region and wrote about it as insiders. Tracing the ways in which generic innovation enabled these writers to negotiate cultural and political concerns through a uniquely British South African lens, Melissa Free argues that British South African literature constitutes a distinct field, one that overlaps with but also exists apart from both a national South African literary tradition and a tradition of South African literature in English. The various genres that British South African novelists introduced—the New Woman novel, the female colonial romance, the Rhodesian settler romance, and the modern spy thriller—anticipated metropolitan literary developments while consolidating Britain's sense of its own dominion in a time of increasing opposition.

For half a century, television spies have been trained professionals, reluctant heroes, housewives, businessmen, criminals, and comedians. They have by turns been glamorous, campy, reflective, sexy, and aloof. This is the first book-length treatment of one of TV's oldest and most fascinating genres. Britton's comprehensive guide provides readers, from casual viewers to die-hard fans, with behind-the-scenes stories to this notable segment of television entertainment. From the early 1960s, in which television spies were used essentially as anti-Communist propaganda, through the subsequent years that both built upon and parodied this model, and finally to today's gadget-laden world of murky motives and complex global politics, spy television has served as much more than mere escapism. From the beginning, television spies opened doors for new kinds of heroes. Women quickly took center stage alongside men, and minority leads in spy programs paved the way for other kinds of roles on the small screen. For half a century, television spies have been trained professionals, reluctant heroes, housewives, businessmen, criminals, and comedians. They have by turns been glamorous, campy, reflective, sexy, and aloof. This is the first book-length treatment of one of TV's oldest and most fascinating genres.