Ashenden, or, The British Agent

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At the outset Ashenden is in a hotel in Geneva, and the business of espionage still has elements of the 19th century about it. In this eclectic collection of interrelated stories based on the author's work in the British intelligence services of WWI, Maugham paints little sketches of the sometimes comic, sometimes horrific workaday details of a life in espionage. The British discover that a dangerous Indian revolutionary who is conspiring with the Germans has fallen in love with a woman they have arrested for spying. Ashenden uses deceit, blackmail and entrapment against his adversaries, with potentially fatal consequences for them, and he does that to people with whom he is personally acquainted. He was a member of the General Synod of the Church of England for 20 years, and was appointed one of the theological canonries at Chichester Cathedral.

The Greatest Secret, the long-awaited major work by Rhonda Byrne, lays out the next quantum leap in a journey that will take the listener beyond the material world and into the spiritual realm, where all possibilities exist. Qui, come si addice alla spy story per antonomasia, si gira il mondo, sia geograficamente che negli incontri umani: Svizzera, messicani, italiani, Orient Express, americani, Rivoluzione russa.It may have been a bit of self-promotion, but Maugham later said that after the book was published Winston Churchill accused the author of contravening the Official Secrets Act, resulting in Maugham destroying 17 unpublished stories which presumably would have been a sequel. Perhaps if this had taken three distinct period's and three families it would have worked - as it is, I'm just not sure. His preface is a spirited—although prickly-- defense of the traditional literary concepts of “a beginning, a middle and an end. By using the Web site, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by the Terms and Conditions. The book is certainly not 'exciting' in the way that we have come to expect within the thriller genre.

I thought that characters in each little story would maybe link up through the years but there are fewer of those connections than I expected so each episode really did have to stand on its own. By the way, feel free to argue that it is not actually a novel -- we'll just agree to disagree on that point. Along the way, they’ll unlock wisdom for those of us navigating our own coupledoms, and for those still seeking their perfect match. This seemed to be especially the case with the Englishman Caypor, who has a German wife, and the American businessman Harrington. This is a lovely take of how this house takes its owners as lovers, rewarding them with a home that feels like a corner of heaven, all the while draining their financial resources.I based my alternative cover on a brief incident in the novel where Ashenden, as a private joke, starts romancing a German agent, the Baroness Von Higgins and they go boating together.

Advent and Christmas draw us into the darkness: Advent to prepare us and Christmas to pierce the darkness with love, before the tiny light of Christ at Christmas grows into a blinding flash at the resurrection.Sometimes the transitions from one generation the next are a bit jarring, but the book as a whole is beautifully constructed -- I look forward to more contributions from Elizabeth Wilhide. As neither one thing nor the other, literature or memoire, the total leaves one a little dissatisfied but the parts make up for the whole.