Graham Greene: The Novelist Who Never Stopped Spying
About this episode
This episode explores the espionage background of novelist Graham Greene and his connections to intelligence services.
The novelist Graham Greene ranks at number 6 on Tim Shipman's infamous Best Spy Writers list — and yet we haven't given him enough airtime on the podcast. Time to put that right. Graham Greene didn't just write about spies — spying was the family business. His uncle founded Naval Intelligence. His sister recruited him into SIS. And Greene himself walked out of the Service the day before D-Day. Why? The answer may involve his boss and drinking companion: Kim Philby. Guest host Matt Hurst debriefs Professor Kevin Ruane — Greene scholar and Director of the Graham Greene International Festival — on the novelist's secret double life. In this episode: The Greene family spy business: an uncle in Naval Intelligence, a sister in SIS, a brother running black ops in Malaya, and another spying for three countries at once (badly) Why Greene quit SIS on the eve of D-Day — and the Philby theory "Recreational espionage": how Greene's letters reveal decades of meetings with "the old firm" before trips to Vienna, Cuba, Poland and Vietnam The Quiet American: the 1955 novel that predicted the Vietnam War, and why journalists like David Halberstam and Neil Sheehan carried it in their knapsacks Was…
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