A new series from the British Library which I had not come across before, to add to the beloved British Library Crime Classics, ie the British Library Spy Classics.

Unlike the Crime Classics series, where many of the authors are familiar to me, even if the books themselves are not, I had never heard of E. Phillips Oppenheim, though the back cover blurb describes him as:

'one of the most popular and successful writers of spy fiction in the early twentieth century, and was known in his time as the Prince of Storytellers.'

Some research suggests he was:

- author of more than 100 novels between 1887 and 1943, 'featuring glamorous characters, international intrigue and fast action';
- was on the cover of Time magazine in 1927;
- 'notably easy to read'.

Fawley is the main character; a citizen of the US but who is looking for excitement (and something to do) when the USA decides between WWI and WWII to disband its secret service agencies, who ends up working (or is he) for Italy which is looking to tie up something nefarious with Germany.

Almost from the beginning, he is involved with a botched assassination, a beautiful woman, a need to travel to the casinos or Monte Carlo, cocktail parties, dangerous undercover investigations as to a secret weapon amongst other events.

Of course, the US and English authorities get involved again (most of whom Fawley is on a first name basis with), and a terrible outcome, affecting the entire world, is averted, largely down to Fawley.

Sound familiar? Yes Oppenheim's books are credited as being a inspiration to Ian Fleming's later James Bond books.

But to be assured that this example is of an earlier era than James Bond, one need only consider:

- the front cover;
- this quote, which has Frawley describing himself early on in the novel (p4): 'I am admittedly a free lance. I must have work of an adventurous type, and since my country cannot offer it to me I must seek for it in any decent way.'

To my way of thinking, this is probably not a strong example to start my foray with this series, but interesting in itself. Would I read a thousand of similar quality, probably not. But as I say, interesting in itself. But if you are not interested in dated early crime/spy novels, I suspect this is not for you other than to try something different/historical.

I will keep an eye for for more in the series.

Big Ship

27 May 2022 ( )

Started out well. Thought it was in the style and time period of Her Royal Spyness but veered into the realm of scifi by the time I finished. ( )

. In the years between the World Wars Oppenheim was considered the Prince of Storytellers, yet quickly fell out of favor after 1945. This particular story was out of print from 1941 till this 2014 edition. The story revolves around American secret agent Martin Fawley who emerged from WW1 a broken man and decided to use his fortune to fund himself as an agent without a country who would fight for peace. Like Bond (who he clearly influenced as Fleming name checks Oppenheim in Moonraker) it’s a story of beautiful women, fast cars, daring exploits, high living and high society as Fawley navigates his way through Italian, French, German, and British government intrigues in an effort to prevent another war. Published in 1935 it is both naive and innocent in its depiction of European politics of the time, yet at the same time scarily prescient in some of its observations. ( )

Considered as a romantic adventure, very enjoyable, with plenty of fast action. An (allegedly) unemployed American spy is hired by an Itarian spymaster -- just as the matter is agreed, a woman tries to shoot the iTaian and fails. The American tracks her and finds she is a beautiful Italian noblewoman. and they fall in love. However, he goes to southern France to discover a secret French super anti-aircraft defense, and also meets a powerful German industrialist, Krust (Krupp?) . He goes on to Germany to determine whether the monarchists, whom Krust backs, or the Fascists, led by Behrling (a rather favorable version of Hitler --a strong nationalist but not anti-Semitic) deserve Italy's support. His beautiful Italian countess switches from the monarchists to the Fascists and tries to persuade him to do the same. Ultimately (spoiler warning) he manages to arrange a pact between Britain, the U.S., France, Germany and Italy by which all parties renounce war and Germany regains her colonies, which supposedly satisfy Behrling more than the Danzig Corridor. This was written in 1935 ad amounts to a preview of Munich with a more sincere Hitler. Oppenheim at that point seemingly had nothing against the Nazis. HIs predictions for the immediate future clearly had some basis in reality but not enough to foresee the final results of appeasement. ( )