Fact, fake or fiction?: the disguised spy novels of Bernard Newman in the 1930s

Abstract

During the inter-war period, there appeared numerous spy memoirs, offering surprising insights into the recently fought secret war. These had a noticeable impact on the writing of spy stories, which under the influence of new detail and knowledge tended to become more realistic. The following article examines the influence of spy memoirs on spy fiction in the period, revealing that both critics and the reading public were now forced to disentangle fact from fakery and trying to pinpoint where truth bled into fiction. Attention is given to the three ‘spy memoirs’ of Bernard Newman, Spy (1935), Secret Servant (1935) and German Spy (1936). These unjustly forgotten works of fiction disguised as fact generated some confusion and debate at the time and served to draw attention to issues of authenticity when treating ‘writers in intelligence’.