Transcription
question
questions about the plot (spoilers)
Bonnie
(last edited
Jan 05, 2019 10:40AM
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Jan 05, 2019 10:38AM
1. Why is "flamingo" (Pavel) so terrified? Is he working for the MI5, and terrified that the Soviets will find him and kill him? Did the Soviets spirit him away or did he escape or do we never know?
2. Why does Godfrey pretend not to recognize Juliet after the war?
3. Why does Juliet rhyme names? Just an idiosyncrasy to help her remember names? But why does she rhyme Lester Pelling with lemming? Pelling doesn't rhyme with lemming!
4. Is Godfrey a double agent? Or is that something left unsolved in the novel?
2. Why does Godfrey pretend not to recognize Juliet after the war?
3. Why does Juliet rhyme names? Just an idiosyncrasy to help her remember names? But why does she rhyme Lester Pelling with lemming? Pelling doesn't rhyme with lemming!
4. Is Godfrey a double agent? Or is that something left unsolved in the novel?
Regarding question 4, I don't think it was clear whether Godfrey was a double agent. He was in on the mission to get Juliet out of the country. So he may have been a Soviet agent (or an agent of another Eastern bloc intelligence service) who wanted to protect an asset.
Another possibility is that he wasn't a double agent but
someone affiliated with one of the UK intelligence services who was aware that she had been coerced into spying on Soviet agents in the UK. Perhaps he thought Juliet was someone who really didn't pass on anything valuable to the Soviets but was just under pawn in the spy game.
There appear to be a lot of layers to the main characters in this book and it is difficult to figure where the ultimate allegiances lie.
Another possibility is that he wasn't a double agent but
someone affiliated with one of the UK intelligence services who was aware that she had been coerced into spying on Soviet agents in the UK. Perhaps he thought Juliet was someone who really didn't pass on anything valuable to the Soviets but was just under pawn in the spy game.
There appear to be a lot of layers to the main characters in this book and it is difficult to figure where the ultimate allegiances lie.
Regarding Q3, it's fairly apparent that in the original draft Lester's surname was Pemming, which of course rhymes with lemming, but due to a transcription error it was changed to Pelling, which actually was the name of an academic historian who specialised in Britain and the Second World War, and 20th century British politics.
Regarding question 1, I think Pavel was so scarred because he feared that the Soviet spies would intercept him while in London. It was 1950 and perhaps he had some awareness that Soviet spies had infiltrated the British intelligence services.
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Feb 13, 2019 03:56PM · flag