Why read Ashenden or The British Agent?

Book cover of Ashenden or The British Agent

Book description

When war broke out in 1914, Somerset Maugham was dispatched by the British Secret Service to Switzerland under the guise of completing a play. Multilingual, knowledgeable about many European countries and a celebrated writer, Maugham had the perfect cover, and the assignment appealed to his love of romance, and of…

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Why read it?

2 authors picked Ashenden or The British Agent as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Susan Hasler

Author

I love this book because it doesn’t dress up espionage in a tuxedo or pretend that the world is black and white. Ashenden is a novel about humanity and hard choices rather than high-speed chases and spy gadgetry.

It is about one human lever in a relentless machine. Maugham gives us small tragedies and cold moments alone with the conscience. His literary genius makes a single death off-stage more resonant than an explosion.

From Susan's list on The best spy books beyond Bond: spot-on novels by former intelligence officers.

Merle Nygate

Author

This is a real golden oldie, published in 1927. I read it when I was in my teens, and I periodically re-read it.

Ashenden is a collection of short stories about a British spy who is also a writer and it paints a picture of spy amateurism and the grubby grind of the work dealing with agents. I love how it reeks of authenticity as Ashenden travels around neutral Switzerland trying to recruit difficult and greedy agents. Maugham was a spy, and Switzerland was his beat during WWI.

From Merle's list on The best spy books that spies read and sometimes wrote themselves.