March 12, 2015

Finest Hour 158, Spring 2013

Page 57

By Michael McMenamin

Princess Elizabeth’s Spy, by Susan Elia MacNeal. Bantam, softbound, 385 pages, $15. Member price $12.
Portrayal ★★★Worth Reading ★★★

Orders from Berlin, by Simon Tolkien. Minotaur, hardbound, 320 pages, $26, Amazon $17.08, Kindle $12.99.
Portrayal ★★Worth Reading ★★★

2024 International Churchill Conference

Join us for the 41st International Churchill Conference. London | October 2024
More

Maggie Hope (Mr. Churchill’s Secretary) is back. And as Churchill growled to her in her earlier role, “We could use some hope in this office.” Maggie has now been recruited by MI-5 and is undergoing training in Scotland when this second adventure begins. Orders from Berlin by Simon Tolkien (grandson of J.R.R.) is similar to Maggie’s first adventure, in that it involves a Nazi plot to assassinate WSC.

Both books are well-written mysteries set in a realistic 1940 London—real page-turners with plots and counterplots galore. Both feature many actual historical characters alongside fictional ones. Princess Elizabeth’s Spy has SS foreign intelligence chief Walter Schellenberg, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, the King and queen and their two princesses and, of course, Churchill. Orders from Berlin features the SS number two man Reinhard Heydrich, Goering, Hitler and Churchill.

There are two differences. One is that MacNeal uses a female protagonist, Tolkien a male—a Scotland Yard detective named Trave (no first name) who appeared in two earlier novels.  More importantly, MacNeal is far superior to Tolkien in defining her historical characters. She knows Churchill well and has taken pains to portray him realistically. Schellenberg and the Windsors are only on stage in the prologue, but seem true to life when Schellenberg offers the Royal couple a bribe. But when Maggie is sent to Windsor Castle to tutor princess Elizabeth as an MI-5 cover for ferreting out a German spy in the Royal entourage, MacNeal’s portrayals of the 14-year-old princess (“Lilibet”) and her younger sister Margaret are delightful.

MacNeal’s plot involves a Nazi conspiracy to kidnap princess Elizabeth to clear the way for the Duke of Windsor to resume the throne after the Nazis invade England, so he can urge his subjects to accept German occupation, like good little Frenchmen.  The conspiracy comes closer to fruition than anyone could imagine and Maggie and Lilibet see a lot of harrowing action.  And everyone knows HM the queen was one tough, resourceful young woman.

I noticed a phrase,“KPO,” ascribed to Churchill and defined as “Keep plodding On.” FH readers know the acronym “KBO” (Keep Buggering On), but “KPO” has its place also.  Author MacNeal referred me to Martin Gilbert’s In Search of Churchill, which says WSC used both acronyms interchangeably. KPO is also quoted in Colville’s diaries; evidently it was a cleaned-up version of the better-known line.

In Orders from Berlin Heydrich persuades Hitler to let him assassinate Churchill, using a highly-placed German spy in MI-6. With Churchill gone, he believes, England will be more willing to listen to the Führer’s generous peace terms. But Tolkien’s portrayals of Heydrich, Goering, Hitler and Churchill do not bring these historical characters to life in the same way that MacNeal does, or as Philip Kerr does with his historical characters in Hitler’s Peace (FH 156). Still, Tolkien’s research is good, and the details ring mostly true, but there are exceptions:

At one point, Reinhard Heydrich reminisces about Hitler’s stabilizing the German currency in 1934, after only a year in office. In fact, Weimar Germany had a stable currency a decade earlier: German hyperinflation ended in January 1924. I’ve seen this same mistake in more than one historical novel about Germany. In another scene, an MI-6 agent declines a drink; Churchill “eyes the man with a look of distrust.” I doubt WSC judged people so superficially. But you won’t be disappointed by either of these books.


Novels are rated one to three stars on two questions: Is the Churchill portrayal accurate? Is the book worth reading? Mr. McMenamin and his son patrick are co-authors of the Churchill thrillers The DeValera deception, The Parsifal Pursuit and The Gemini Agenda, set during 1929-39.

A tribute, join us

#thinkchurchill

Subscribe

WANT MORE?

Get the Churchill Bulletin delivered to your inbox once a month.