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Portrait of the Spy as a Young Man

A gripping WWII espionage thriller by a former special forces officer

Edward Wilson

$22.99

Paperback

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English
Arcadia Press
11 October 2022
Series: William Catesby
A thrilling SOE spy novel by a former special forces officer who is 'poised to inherit the mantle of John le Carre'

'Edward Wilson seems poised to inherit the mantle of John le Carre' Irish Independent

'More

George Smiley than James Bond, Catesby will delight those readers

looking for less blood and more intelligence in their spy thrillers' Publishers Weekly

Cambridge, 1941. A teenage William Catesby leaves his studies to join the war effort.

Parachuted into Occupied France as an SOE officer, he witnesses remarkable feats of bravery during the

French Resistance.

Yet he is also privy to infighting and betrayal - some of the Maquisards are more concerned with controlling the peace than fighting the war. Double agents and informers abound, and with torture a certainty if he is taken, Catesby knows there is no one he can trust.

Passed from safe house to safe house, with the Abwehr on his tail, he is drawn towards Lyon, a city of backstreets and blind alleys. His mission is simple: thwart an act of treachery that could shape the future of France.

'Edward Wilson's excellent Portrait of the Spy as a Young Man draws on his own special forces training'

Independent

'Engaging . . . Dynamic . . . Wilson's fascination is as much with how the spy betrays himself as with how

he manipulates others' The Times

Praise for Edward Wilson:

'Stylistically sophisticated . . . Wilson knows how to hold the reader's attention' W.G. Sebald

'A reader is really privileged to come across something like this' Alan Sillitoe

'All

too often, amid the glitzy gadgetry of the spy thriller, all the

fast

cars and sexual adventures, we lose sight of the essential

seriousness of what is at stake. John le Carre reminds us, often, and

so

does Edward Wilson' Independent

By:  
Imprint:   Arcadia Press
Country of Publication:   United Kingdom
Dimensions:   Height: 196mm,  Width: 128mm,  Spine: 22mm
Weight:   220g
ISBN:   9781529422283
ISBN 10:   1529422280
Series:   William Catesby
Pages:   304
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active

Edward Wilson is a native of Baltimore. He studied International Relations on a US Army scholarship and later served as a Special Forces officer in Vietnam. He received the Army Commendation Medal with 'V' for his part in rescuing wounded Vietnamese soldiers from a minefield. His other decorations include the Bronze Star and the Combat Infantryman's Badge. After leaving the Army, Wilson became an expatriate and gave up US nationality to become a British citizen. He has also lived and worked in Germany and France, and was a post-graduate student at Edinburgh University. He now lives in Suffolk where he taught English and Modern Languages for thirty years.

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