Ashenden or: the British Agent is a 1928 collection of loosely linked stories by W. Somerset Maugham. It is partly based on the author's experience as a member of British Intelligence in Europe during the First World War.
A playwright called Ashenden is recruited by Colonel R., a British Intelligence officer. He is sent to Switzerland where he becomes involved in a series of adventures. In one he accompanies a man called the Hairless Mexican to Italy, where a Greek agent of the Germans is to be assassinated. In another he must get an Italian dancer to induce her Indian lover, a German agent, to cross the border into Switzerland to see her, so that Ashenden can arrest him.
It is said that Somerset Maugham modelled the character of John Ashenden after himself and Chandra Lal after Virendranath Chattopadhyaya, an Indian Nationalist in Germany during the war. Maugham, who was in the British Secret Service in Europe during the war, based a number of his stories on his own experiences. Among other enterprises, Britain's European intelligence network attempted to eliminate a number of Indian nationalists in Europe, notably members of the Berlin Committee. Donald Gullick, a British agent, was dispatched to assassinate Chattopadhaya while the latter was on his way to Geneva to meet another Indian nationalist, Mahendra Pratap and forward the Kaiser's invitation to Berlin. The short story of Giulia Lazzari is a blend of Gullick's attempts to assassinate Chattopadhyaya and Mata Hari's story. Winston Churchill reportedly advised Maugham to burn 14 other stories.
It is an archetype of the espionage novel, a book to which more modern practitioners such as Eric Ambler, Ian Fleming, Graham Greene, Len Deighton, John le Carré, Robert Ludlum, and Alan Furst are indebted for its role in developing the genre.[citation needed]. An example of this is the device, which Fleming copied in the James Bond novels, of referring to the head of British Intelligence only by an initial.
Replies
' While Bond's Boss is called "M" and his outfitter is callled "Q," Maugham's Ashedon reports to "R." '
And in real life, the head of MI5 was codenamed K while the head of MI6 was codenamed C.
Why? Simply because those were the initials of the first heads of the departments (Vernon Kell and Mansfield Cumming).
ou learn something new every day. Thank You Mike. ------------------------------------------- Rick
21/12/12
Being a Somerset Maugham freak I was delighted to see these stories pop up.
Thanks very much.
Robert
This is a surprisingly delightful "listen," but two things must be recognized first.
1) Ashendon was written long before the advent of the iPads, the Internet, television, and while radio was still in its infancy. While not "Dickensonian" (taking the first 100 pages to get the hero born and grown, and then we finally get down to the actual story), it is still written at a slower pace than modern novels. I also believe this story to be highly autobiographical of Maugham's life in the British Secret Service in WWI. He faithfully shows that far from the James Bond Novels, spy work is difficult, tedious, and you don't always get the results you seek.
2) I was surprised how very much Ian Flemming was beholding to Maugham. While Bond's Boss is called "M" and his outfitter is callled "Q," Maugham's Ashedon reports to "R." There is a hint of specialty devices.
One of this story's best features is the ability to breathe the air of a lost era: when things were slower and villains were less complex. Even the executions are done "off screen," and I think the TV Show Colombo was the last time I did not see a mangled corpse on screen. Kind of refreshing in a way.
Thank you, Rick, David, and fellow Times Pastees!
BCA