Mr Verloc, the protagonist of his novel, is an avowed anarchist, but also an agent provocateur for the thinly-disguised Russian embassy in London. The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale by Joseph Conrad (1907) In 1922 he suffered death by firing squad in the course of the Irish civil war, telling his American-born wife on the eve of his execution that he still loved England.ģ. A footnote: on the eve of the war, the Anglo-Irish Childers used his own yacht to smuggle German arms to Ireland to help the cause of independence. Childers debunkers pointed out that Frisian waters were too shallow for warships and the hinterland had no warehousing facilities to serve the needs of an invasion. They obtain evidence to prove that Germany is planning an invasion of England. Negotiating the Frisian coast in his yacht Dulcibella, Arthur Davies is accompanied by his Foreign Office chum Carruthers. If you enjoyed Swallows and Amazons, check this out. The Riddle of the Sands: A Record of Secret Service Recently Achieved by Erskine Childers (1903) Birch inverted that logic in his explanation of why they could rely on his silence: "Tell them I would not take the gold!"Ģ. Birch's case officer, the future president George Washington, hears complaints after the war that the retired spy might prove to be loose-tongued – the new United States had no hold on him, as it had never paid him a salary. The impecunious spy "belonged to a condition in life which rendered him the least reluctant to appear in so equivocal a character". The Spy or, A Tale of the Neutral Ground by James Fenimore Cooper (1821)Ī factually-based account of the exploits of Harvey Birch, a secret agent in the American War of Independence.
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