The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington by Jennet Conant Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington
Book Review: The Willy Wonka You Never Knew
Summary: 5 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
Roald Dahl is a fascinating man. This is about the life that most people don't know he lived - that of a British officer and spy of sorts, sent to mingle with important americans and charged to influence them with subtle propaganda into supporting WWII. England wasn't doing so great to say the least, and they needed all the help they could get: namely, from America.
The Irregulars evokes memories of those fictitious Baker Street Irregulars, who worked for Sherlock Holmes and acted as his eyes and ears, as he prepared to influence the outcomes of his cases. Roald Dahl also made the perfect sort of spy in that regard; you'd never expect him to be one.
This provides a fascinating insight into a seldom-taught aspect of WW2 history and influence. I had no idea that any of this had been going on at all. Roald Dahl being one of my most favorite authors, I jumped on the chance to read this, to perhaps understand precisely why his fiction was as good and rich as it is. This record of activity goes provides a unique window of observation on one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century. This is a must-read too for any Ian Flemming fans. The James Bond books have an entirely new perspective for me now, and I am going to re-read them all again, inspired to by this book.
Book Review: Tinker, Tailor, Pilot, Spy
Summary: 5 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
"Don't you think that you or some other regular officer should be doing this job?"
"We've all got our hands full," the Captain said.
Roald Dahl had it all; a wounded RAF pilot who had the intellect, grace and charm to open doors that would typically be shut to even the biggest political insiders.
And as author Jennet Conant writes in this biography of Dahl, the friends he had in high places ultimately shaped the policies of the United States in World War II and in the opening salvos of the Cold War, but with a gentle push or - oftentimes - a hard shove into a specific direction by British agents.
Dahl was a key player in a British spy ring in Washington, D.C., which found him striding confidently into the White House halls of the Franklin Delano Roosevelt administration and counting on such key players as FDR, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, Henry Wallace and Henry Morgentheau, Jr., as vital colleagues.
Starting in 1942, Dahl became entwined in a wide web of intrigue designed by Sir William "Intrepid" Stevenson to destroy brick-by-brick the isolationist movement in the U.S. and shape the political relations between the two nations in the war against Nazi Germany. Some of Dahl's work was done with the approval of FDR.
Important areas of this campaign included the use of influential journalists - Walter Winchell, Drew Pearson - and other media members to tell the story of cooperation and a plot against U.S. corporations that retained cozy relations with the Nazis.
The canvas of the post-war landscape included Dahl's 1946 proposal of an American-English Secret Service, writes Conant. But as a new type of war with the Soviet Union turned frigid, there was personal turmoil for spies like Dahl who came in from the cold. But old friendships ultimately did not fade away after the covert warriors slowly disappeared from the scene.
"I have endeavored to pull the curtain back on one small part of this shadowy episode in order to tell the story of young Dahl's incredible experience as one of Stepenson's 'agents of influence' in America," writes Conant.
Mission accomplished.
Book Review: Trading Rumors, Secrets, Access, Influence, and Loyalties
Summary: 4 Stars
During World War II, Britain dispatched many presentable young men to argue its case to America, to pick up insights, to grab secrets that could be used, and to influence American decisions. Where several books have emphasized the spymaster behind these efforts, Canadian William Stephenson, this book looks at the young men exercising their influence in Washington, D.C. Roald Dahl (author of James and the Giant Peach and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) was one of the most effective, but his peers also included Ian Fleming (author of the James Bond books) and David Ogilvy (of advertising fame . . . thinking Hathaway shirts).
Ms. Conant writes about these young men and those they seduced (men into sharing secrets and women often into their boudoirs) in a way that seems like today's gossip, foibles and all. What makes those details interesting is that they often involve prominent Americans like President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt, Vice President Henry Wallace, up-and-comer Lyndon Johnson, and influential reporters and columnists. You will probably be especially interested to learn about Charles Edward Marsh, newspaper magnate, trophy wife hunter, and sponsor for promising young men (including Dahl and Johnson).
The book's main weakness is that it seems puffed up a bit to include more gossipy tidbits than are necessary for the story, but which might titillate readers. On the other hand, Ms. Conant resists falling in love with her subjects and writes candidly about their weaknesses, pains, failings, and disappointments.
To me the most interesting parts of the book came where it became transparent that President Roosevelt was using the British spies to help achieve his goals while keeping his own counsel.
The reality is that the British were acting more like today's lobbyists than they were spies . . . except that they didn't make large campaign contributions.
If you don't like books about who seduced who and how it all happened, you should avoid this book. It tells you more than you want to know in those areas.
Book Review: Unexpected Insight Into The Life of An Unusual Spy
Summary: 3 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
In March 1942 Roald Dahl, who was a British airman, had been wounded in battle. He was informed that he was to be posted to the British Embassy in Washington. He was not pleased. However, he soon came alive with the intrigue of William Stephenson, a Canadian spymaster. Stephenson managed to create a clandestine organization whose purpose was to weaken the forces in America and influence U.S. policy in favor of Britain.
"Tall, handsome, and intelligent, Dahl had all the makings of an ideal operative. A courageous officer wounded in battle, smashing looking in his dress uniform, he was everything England could have asked for as a romantic representative of their imperiled island. He was also arrogant, idiosyncratic, and incorrigible, and probably the last person anyone would have considered reliable enough to be trusted with anything secret. Above all, however, Dahl was a survivor. When he got into trouble, he was shrewd enough to make himself useful to British intelligence, providing them with gossipy items that proved he had a nose for scandal and the writer's ear for damning detail. Already attached to the British air mission in Washington, he came equipped with the perfect cover story, and his easy wit and conspicuous charm guaranteed him entree to the drawing rooms -- and bedrooms -- of the rich and powerful." Jennet Conant
Roald Dahl has been known to me as a marvelous children's author of 'Charlie and The Chocolate Factory' and George and The Giant Peach'. I also know him as the husband of Patricia Neal, the actress. Who knew he was also a spy? The interesting aspect of this spy novel is that the 'other side' was not Germany, Italy and Japan, it was the United States! Great Britain and the United States were allies but, it seems, not real ones. The US was reluctant to enter the war and Churchill and his minions encouraged everyone to 'drag' the US into the war with them. This novel tells that story. I found the many characters to be disjointed and had difficulty separating them. The story of Roald Dahl is fascinating but just a small piece of his life. The handsome man did the bidding of his country.
Recommended. prisrob 10-16-08
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Book Review: Unfocused
Summary: 3 Stars
More of a gossipy take on the social lives of the elite in wartime Washington, D.C. than a serious history of British espionage during World War II in America.
It is difficult to determine after reading this book if the author was more interested in the extensive love life of Roald Dahl (and others), the post-war global commercial air system sought by Pan Am, Henry Wallace's odd political career, or Charles Marsh, a rich Texan and father figure to Dahl.
Copy editing is less than perfect. One example from two successive sentences on page 156: "He would always remember the long winding drive that led up to the house.... The approach was long and winding and cut through the woods..."