| Publisher | Grove Press |
|---|---|
| Date Published | 05 May 2016 |
| ISBN-10 | 1611856183 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1611856187 |
| Format | hardcover |
| Pages | 368 |
| Price | £ 14.99 |
The Unfortunate Englishman
by
Joe Wilderness is in a West Berlin jail after having unintentionally shot a woman whom he was trying to smuggle to the West. Just when it seems that he is going to be there for a long time, his father-in-law, a senior member of MI5, comes to his rescue - but it is at a price.
Review
It is June 1963 and the action opens in West Berlin. When Joe Wilderness tried (and failed) to smuggle a woman veteran of the Manhattan Project out of Berlin he is no longer in MI6, having resigned two years previously. Finding himself in jail as a result of his failure – not to mention his accidental shooting of the woman – he is secretly relieved when his former boss, Burne-Jones, walks in, but not so pleased when he is told that the price of his release will be his re-enlistment in MI6. However, he has no choice and agrees.
The scene changes to 1945 and Bernard Forbes Campbell Alleyn, the sole survivor of a Lancaster bomber shot down the previous year, is found in Germany, his memory gone and his uniform in tatters, but still wearing his dog tags. The only problem is that it isn’t Alleyn at all but a Russian, Liubimov, who had been cleverly substituted for him and is now about to become a Soviet spy in England. Not unnaturally, the NKVD choose to locate him in Cambridge.
When he meets a typical English girl at the university and falls in love with her he begins to realise that he likes life in England and intends to pursue it and live it to the full. His spying activities become almost incidental. As the years go by he becomes more and more English and even has his daughters’ names down for independent schools. This little history is charmingly told and the reader feels that Alleyn could go on to be a happy and privileged member of the English middle classes.
We are then introduced to Geoffrey Masefield, a man prepared by Burne-Jones and Joe Wilderness to pose as a British businessman in Russia. He, too, is looking for a change of life as part of the middle classes, as against the Derby-based working class into which he had been born, and regards MI5 as a great opportunity to achieve it. Again there is a very neat and perceptive portrayal of his origins when the author tells us that, having made a little money, he buys his widowed mother a new house -, after which she spent all her time buying hats. However, it turns out the Mr Masefield is no better at the spying business than Mr Alleyn and it comes as no surprise when he is arrested by the KGB.
When Burne-Jones decides that he wants Masefield back and arranges a swop with Alleyn we expect something like a Le Carré moment as Karla comes over the bridge. Unfortunately, we get nothing of the kind. Perhaps the reason for this is that both have been such ineffective spies that it doesn’t really matter whether they are released or not. Certainly, there is nothing even remotely exciting about the way it is done and the book goes steadily downhill from this point. There is a very unlikely tale of a lorry load of stolen wine and a hugely confusing journey that it takes to arrive at its destination, including a stop at a former concentration camp. It is difficult to imagine many readers who will be prepared to read to the end of this.
One very irritating feature of this novel is it is more of a second part than a sequel. What this means is that the characters introduced in the first novel are simply dragged back into the second, without any particular attempt to tell the reader anything about them. Much, for example, is made of Nell, who clearly had a large part in the first book. There are suggestions that she is Wilderness’s real love, but there is nothing actually to justify them. Similarly, the CIA man, Spoleto, is used to facilitate the journey of the wine truck, but again there is no attempt to integrate him into the novel.
In fact, the two spies, who appeared at one point to be the whole purpose of this book, more or less melt away and one has the impression that the author simply doesn’t care what happens to them and that he is desperate to bring the book to an end. It is difficult to imagine anybody who has attempted to read this book being attracted by a sequel and one can only hope that the career of Joe Wilderness is over. It is obvious from the first half of the book that John Lawton can write extremely well indeed, and with considerable humour, but there has to be a plan for bringing something to a conclusion. In this case there simply wasn’t one.
The scene changes to 1945 and Bernard Forbes Campbell Alleyn, the sole survivor of a Lancaster bomber shot down the previous year, is found in Germany, his memory gone and his uniform in tatters, but still wearing his dog tags. The only problem is that it isn’t Alleyn at all but a Russian, Liubimov, who had been cleverly substituted for him and is now about to become a Soviet spy in England. Not unnaturally, the NKVD choose to locate him in Cambridge.
When he meets a typical English girl at the university and falls in love with her he begins to realise that he likes life in England and intends to pursue it and live it to the full. His spying activities become almost incidental. As the years go by he becomes more and more English and even has his daughters’ names down for independent schools. This little history is charmingly told and the reader feels that Alleyn could go on to be a happy and privileged member of the English middle classes.
We are then introduced to Geoffrey Masefield, a man prepared by Burne-Jones and Joe Wilderness to pose as a British businessman in Russia. He, too, is looking for a change of life as part of the middle classes, as against the Derby-based working class into which he had been born, and regards MI5 as a great opportunity to achieve it. Again there is a very neat and perceptive portrayal of his origins when the author tells us that, having made a little money, he buys his widowed mother a new house -, after which she spent all her time buying hats. However, it turns out the Mr Masefield is no better at the spying business than Mr Alleyn and it comes as no surprise when he is arrested by the KGB.
When Burne-Jones decides that he wants Masefield back and arranges a swop with Alleyn we expect something like a Le Carré moment as Karla comes over the bridge. Unfortunately, we get nothing of the kind. Perhaps the reason for this is that both have been such ineffective spies that it doesn’t really matter whether they are released or not. Certainly, there is nothing even remotely exciting about the way it is done and the book goes steadily downhill from this point. There is a very unlikely tale of a lorry load of stolen wine and a hugely confusing journey that it takes to arrive at its destination, including a stop at a former concentration camp. It is difficult to imagine many readers who will be prepared to read to the end of this.
One very irritating feature of this novel is it is more of a second part than a sequel. What this means is that the characters introduced in the first novel are simply dragged back into the second, without any particular attempt to tell the reader anything about them. Much, for example, is made of Nell, who clearly had a large part in the first book. There are suggestions that she is Wilderness’s real love, but there is nothing actually to justify them. Similarly, the CIA man, Spoleto, is used to facilitate the journey of the wine truck, but again there is no attempt to integrate him into the novel.
In fact, the two spies, who appeared at one point to be the whole purpose of this book, more or less melt away and one has the impression that the author simply doesn’t care what happens to them and that he is desperate to bring the book to an end. It is difficult to imagine anybody who has attempted to read this book being attracted by a sequel and one can only hope that the career of Joe Wilderness is over. It is obvious from the first half of the book that John Lawton can write extremely well indeed, and with considerable humour, but there has to be a plan for bringing something to a conclusion. In this case there simply wasn’t one.
Reviewed 26 November 2016 by Arnold Taylor
