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The Private Life of Spies
On sale
9th February 2023
Price: £16.99
During WW2 there was a rumour that German spies were landing by parachute in Britain, dressed as nuns…
‘Spy-masterful storytelling’ Sunday Post
‘Delightfully old-fashioned and prudent of prose, McCall Smith unspools his tales’ Daily Mail
‘[Adds] another treasure to McCall Smith’s already glittering library’ New York Journal of Books
Conradin Muller was an unusual spy. He was recruited in Hamburg in June 1943, much against his will, and sent on his first, and only, mission in late September that year. He failed to send a single report back to Germany, and when the War came to an end in May 1945, he fell to his knees and wept with relief.
From a highly reluctant German spy who is drawn to an East Anglian nunnery as his only means of escape, to the strange tale of one of the Cambridge spy ring’s adventures with a Russian dwarf, these are Alexander McCall Smith’s intriguing and typically inventive stories from the world of espionage.
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Reviews
Massively entertaining and thought-provoking
There's nothing not to like about Alexander McCall Smith when you read his latest collection of six short stories on the business of spying... These are a half dozen beautifully shaped, delicious morsels, which I devoured even faster than McCall Smith could write them... full of character and detail
Spy-masterful storytelling
Marvellous... shows off Alexander McCall Smith's accomplishment as a storyteller as its very best
Based on extensive research and with a fine grip on the slippery nature of the world of espionage, these underhand dealings range from Algeria in 1924 to a modern-day clerical cabal in the Vatican... Delightfully old-fashioned and prudent of prose, McCall Smith unspools his tales
Taken together, the two parts echo each other. Each story provides a unique cast of characters and distinctly different plots, each offers a gentle portrait of people and society. And each is guided by the mastery of a consummate storyteller, offering another treasure to his already glittering library