I was initially discomfited by this book because I had read Anthony Quinn's 'Our Friends In Berlin' in August and both books are based on the same release of information from the Government Archives. This explained why to start with I thought I was reading the same book. (My thoughts on that book are listed elsewhere in this section.) In the end, of course, they are very different books.
The shared origin was the release of information from the National Archives about a Second World War agent - Jack King/ Eric Roberts who had been recruited to draw together Nazi supporters and encourage them to route intelligence about British War activities through him - ostensibly to be forwarded to Berlin but in reality being accumulated as evidence of Fifth Column activity. This was, apparently, very successful.
In 'Transcription' the lead character (Juliet Armstrong) is the 'secretary' who types up the notes of the meetings with the Fifth Columnists. Her adventures continue into some more active espionage work in support of the work of the team she is a part of. Just as Kate Atkinson's summary of the Jack King/ Eric Roberts case says that his conventional employers didn't understand the talent he had so Juliet's underlying talent for her work is only revealed at the end of the book. I was surprised by the revelation - I had underestimated her too!
This is one of those books which starts, briefly, at the end and then goes into the exciting life Juliet lived in a more conventional chronological order. The character development is good - recognising that nearly all the characters were working in an environment in which being open as to one's true feelings and role was dangerous and discouraged.
Whilst Juliet was a good actor the description of her adventures show how she struggled with the multiple roles she had to play - with only a rare slip up or bumping into a character from another slice of her life. Once I got into the story I was interested in how Juliet would progress through her life and whether she would be successful. As a very young, and innocent, woman at the start of the story her rather disjointed and unsuccessful search for love was handled in an interesting way - quite a few 'stiff upper lip' descriptions of events which might echo the general attitude towards sex and relationships at the time. I also thought that the way the pleasures and trials of life in wartime London were described was convincing. In the last section I was disappointed that there wasn't a little more about her civilian life between 1950 and 1980.
So after a slow start this was another book which I enjoyed and would recommend to others.
The shared origin was the release of information from the National Archives about a Second World War agent - Jack King/ Eric Roberts who had been recruited to draw together Nazi supporters and encourage them to route intelligence about British War activities through him - ostensibly to be forwarded to Berlin but in reality being accumulated as evidence of Fifth Column activity. This was, apparently, very successful.
In 'Transcription' the lead character (Juliet Armstrong) is the 'secretary' who types up the notes of the meetings with the Fifth Columnists. Her adventures continue into some more active espionage work in support of the work of the team she is a part of. Just as Kate Atkinson's summary of the Jack King/ Eric Roberts case says that his conventional employers didn't understand the talent he had so Juliet's underlying talent for her work is only revealed at the end of the book. I was surprised by the revelation - I had underestimated her too!
This is one of those books which starts, briefly, at the end and then goes into the exciting life Juliet lived in a more conventional chronological order. The character development is good - recognising that nearly all the characters were working in an environment in which being open as to one's true feelings and role was dangerous and discouraged.
Whilst Juliet was a good actor the description of her adventures show how she struggled with the multiple roles she had to play - with only a rare slip up or bumping into a character from another slice of her life. Once I got into the story I was interested in how Juliet would progress through her life and whether she would be successful. As a very young, and innocent, woman at the start of the story her rather disjointed and unsuccessful search for love was handled in an interesting way - quite a few 'stiff upper lip' descriptions of events which might echo the general attitude towards sex and relationships at the time. I also thought that the way the pleasures and trials of life in wartime London were described was convincing. In the last section
I was disappointed that there wasn't a little more about her civilian life between 1950 and 1980.
So after a slow start this was another book which I enjoyed and would recommend to others.