Reviewed by Gabrielle Pantera
“I started looking at a lot of old books written during that period and I found in passing a mention that a young man named Roald Dahl and David Ogilvy were propagandists and agents of influence for the British and they shared a townhouse in Georgetown,” says The Irregulars author Jennet Conant. “My immediate reaction was there has to be a story there. I think as a country we’re very naïve about intelligence services.”
Roald Dahl became associated with an interesting assortment of British spies, including James Bond 007 author Ian Fleming, spymaster Bill Stephenson believed to be the inspiration for James Bond, and “The Father of Advertising” David Ogilvy. Dahl came to America after serving as a RAF pilot and ace in the skies of Libya and Greece. With only seven RAF aircraft defending Greece, Dahl and his comrades shot down 22 German aircraft in one battle. Dahl’s exploits in the war are detailed in his autobiography. Conant’s book details his efforts in Washington to get America to enter the war against Germany.
Dahl was dispatched to America in 1942 as a diplomat after he was no longer able to fly. After a bit of time here and getting into trouble he looked around to see what else he could do and joined the British spy agency, called the BSC after the original Baker Street Address of the Special Operations Executive in London, but the uninitiated preferred to think of it as a reference to Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes’s Baker Street Irregulars.
Dahl, as a British agent-provocateur in America, an ally, had little use for the violent methods of James Bond. Dahl’s methods were more along the lines of Mata Hari: seduction. Dahl was a handsome man’s man of unflagging confidence who seduced every woman of influence he could find. His targets included actresses such as Claire Boothe Luce. Later, in 1953, Dahl married American actress Patricia Neal.
Dahl and his fellow irregulars faced little danger, except that of being sent home. Seduction on the cocktail party circuit is not as exciting as Ian Fleming’s James Bond but the use of agents to influence foreign policy and increase support is interesting. As Conant shows, Spies don’t have kill people to be effective.
Like Fleming, after the war Dahl becomes a bestselling author. Dahl has written such classics as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, and James and the Giant Peach. He’s one of the most popular children’s authors of all time.
Jennet Conant is a journalist who’s written for Vanity Fair, Esquire, Newsweek and The New York Times. She’s the author of the bestsellers Tuxedo Park and 109 East Palace. Conant lives in New York City with her husband and son.
The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington by Jennet Conant
Price: $16. Publisher: Simon & Schuster. Release Date: September 8, 2009 (re-release)
