Espionage in Wartime: An Unlikely Trio Of Spies: Background information when reading Too Bad to Die

Espionage in Wartime: An Unlikely Trio Of Spies

This article relates to Too Bad to Die

In Too Bad to Die, the central character is author Ian Fleming whose career path started out in the British office of naval war intelligence. This piqued my curiosity about other writers in espionage.

Ian Fleming, Julia Child, and Noel Coward had little in common growing up but all three were heavily involved in wartime espionage. Friends Ian Fleming and Noel Coward trained together in covert action at Bletchley Park, the UK's signals intelligence agency. Raised in Pasadena, California, Julia Child rose through the ranks from a junior clerk in the newly formed Office of Strategic Services (the precursor to the CIA), to become a key administrator with a high security clearance based in Asia.



Educated at Eton, Sandhurst (Britain's leading military academy) and abroad, Ian Fleming was the youngest son of a wealthy, well-connected family whose heroic father was killed in WWI. Fleming pursued careers as a journalist and less successfully as a stockbroker before being commissioned as a Lieutenant Commander in the Naval Intelligence Division. A gifted linguist fluent in French, Italian, German and Russian, Fleming was adept at planning and coordinating top-secret intelligence work. He maintained communication with Alan Turing at Bletchley Park and was brought into contact with Bill Donovan, creator and director of the OSS during official trips abroad. The rather salacious 2014 BBC-produced, four-part mini-series Fleming begins each episode with the quote: "Everything I write has a precedent in truth." Author Ian Fleming, bound by the Official Secrecy Act, never wrote directly about his days in naval intelligence. The creator of the first twelve James Bond books and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang who died at the age of 56 would probably have been amused by the attention to his persona fifty years on and marveled at the success of what has become a worldwide franchise.

Julia Child may not have mastered French cuisine and shared her knowledge and enthusiasm with the American public had she not joined the OSS and met her future husband Paul Child in 1944 when stationed in Kandy in what is now Sri Lanka. Late in the war, accompanied by Paul, she was dispatched to set up and run the OSS Registry in Kunming, China. There are several fine biographies of the indomitable Julia who also took her wartime espionage secrets to her grave. L. Riley Fitch used declassified archival records to write one of the best, Appetite for Life: The Biography of Julia Child.

Flamboyant, brilliant, witty Noel Coward used his photographic memory and playboy persona to mask his clandestine fieldwork of observation and reporting on Nazi intelligence to his Canadian-born spymaster Sir William Stephenson, code-named "Intrepid" during the early part of the war. A hugely successful entertainer, and playwright, Coward was directed to perform in Warsaw, Moscow, Helsinki as well as Paris and to mingle with VIPs to glean information. He was fervently opposed to fascism, and was pro-Churchill. Ultimately he was passed over for an official administrative position but he continued to support wartime efforts in his own inimitable way. He composed the patriotic song "London Pride," wrote, produced, starred and co-directed with David Lean, the inspirational film In Which We Serve, and in a manic five-day writing spree penned Blithe Spirit that continues to elicit laughter and entertain audiences.

Wartime espionage is an endlessly fascinating topic. Roald Dahl, one the British Spy Ring "Irregulars" is another intriguing subject.

Also of interest "From Spy to Author"

Picture of Ian Fleming from IanFleming.com
Picture of Julia Child from Denver Post
Picture of Noel Coward from BritMovie

Filed under People, Eras & Events

This "beyond the book article" relates to Too Bad to Die. It originally ran in May 2015 and has been updated for the March 2016 paperback edition. Go to magazine.