Literary Agents by Anthony Masters
Spy novels have been one of the most successful literary genres of the 20th century. But how many of their authors were spies themselves? In this book, the authors penetrate the shadowy world of British Intelligence in an attempt to uncover some of the less celebrated activities of well-known literary names. From John Buchan during and after World War I and Compton Mackenzie in the tense and suspicious 1930s, the story continues through the World War II exploits of Graham Greene and Malcolm Muggeridge to the post-war era of Ian Fleming and John le Carre. The author explores his subjects' attitudes and responses to their varying experiences and suggests how these experiences were transmuted into fiction - and how the secret services tried to prevent this. The reality of espionage work was not always the thrilling, momentous and intricate world depicted in much modern spy fiction. Often humdrum, and sometimes frightening, frequently absurd and bathetic, the facets of this world are as varied, and as surprising, as the subjects of the book - and their own fictional characters - themselves.
Anthony Masters is the author of eleven works of adult fiction - notably, Conquering Heroes (1969), Red Ice (1986, with Nicholas Barker), The Men (1997), The Good and Faithful Servant (1999) and Lifers (2001) - and, prior to his death, was in the process of completing another, Dark Bridges, which he thought would be his best. Many of these works carry deep insights into social problems that he gained, over four decades, by helping the socially excluded, be it by running soup kitchens for drug addicts or by campaigning for the civic rights of gypsies and other ethnic minorities. Masters is also known for his eclectic range of non-fiction titles. It ranged from the biographies of such diverse personalities as Hannah Senesh (The Summer that Bled, 1972), Mikhail Bakunin (Bakunin: the Father of Anarchism, 1974), Nancy Astor (Nancy Astor: A Life, 1981) and the British secret service chief immortalized by Ian Fleming in his James Bond books (The Man Who Was M: the Life of Maxwell Knight, 1984), to a history of the notorious asylum Bedlam (Bedlam, 1977).
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780631149798 |
| ISBN 10 | 0631149791 |
| Title | Literary Agents |
| Author | Anthony Masters |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding type | Hardback |
| Publisher | John Wiley and Sons Ltd |
| Year published | 1987-10-22 |
| Number of pages | 288 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |