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The Spy's Bedside Book
The Spy's Bedside Book
Jul 7, 2025 4:03 PM

Author:Graham Greene,Hugh Greene

The Spy's Bedside Book

On its first appearance in 1957, Hugh and Graham Greene's The Spy's Bedside Book provoked a storm of interest, and, perhaps unsurprisingly, 100 copies were bought by East German Intelligence.

This classic anthology, with a new introduction by the former head of MI5, Stella Rimington, includes stories by some of the great writers on spying and many practitioners, including Ian Fleming and John Buchan, Sir Robert Baden-Powell and Belle Boyd, Walter Schellenberg and Major André, Sir Paul Dukes and Vladimir Petrov, and. from the golden age of mystery and suspense, William Le Queux and E. Phillips Oppenheim. There are also some unexpected figures: William Blake, D.H. Lawrence and Thomas Mann, all suspected of spying in three great wars.

How can you hide messages in a boiled egg? Why should you always put pepper in your vodka when in Russia? Answers to these questions and much more can be found in this thrilling collection, which will enthral readers once again with its tales of espionage from a bygone era.

Reviews

I fear England will be infested with alien agents who have learned their trade from this revealing and mischievous compilation

—— The Evening News (London)

[A] marvellous anthology of spy stories

—— Jeremy Lewis , The Oldie

This charming 1957 curiosity, a compendium of espionage vignettes, will bring out the spy in everyone

—— Evening Standard

Kernick delivers his book like a runaway locomotive without brakes. This is another cracking read from a great author.

—— www.crimesquad.com

Pace, pace, pace is what Simon Kernick does best.

—— Daily Mirror

Simon Kernick writes great plots, great characters, great action.

—— Lee Child

Simon Kernick writes with his foot pressed hard on the pedal. Hang on tight!

—— Harlen Coben

From the first line, Simon Kernick knows how to get a thriller shifting, and he doesn't let up until the very last

—— Daily Mirror

Simon Kernick uses every trick in the book to keep the action breakneck.

—— Time Out

Snappy chapters, tense scenes and no holds barred action sequences - I read this novel in a very short time and it gave me a real “wow” feeling.

—— The Crime Warp

Part Lisbeth Salander, part Jason Bourne, Munroe comes out swinging hard again. . . . A gritty, suspenseful novel.

—— Library Journal

Settings don’t come much more Gothic than Wreaking, the derelict, decaying...psychiatric hospital of James Scudamore’s striking third novel

—— Daily Mail

This is the work of a writer totally at ease with, and confident in, his powers. A wonderfully assured novel with scope and ambition and with enough of a mystery at its heart to keep the reader hooked till the end

—— We Love This Book

We are left with the characters in our heads for days, and the sense of unease that Scudamore cleverly conjures up

—— Press Association Syndication

A twisted, unsettling tale of family lies and lonely souls

—— Shortlist

An immersion in the physical and psychic ruins of a contemporary Britain which enchants and disturbs, lures and repels. The inner poetry and descriptive mastery of James Scudamore's Wreaking are riches which cannot be forgotten. If you only read one novel in coming times, make it this astonishing and deeply moving chronicle

—— Alan Warner

This is an impressive work from the critically acclaimed author of Heliopolis

—— Good Book Guide
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