https://orcid.org/0009-0008-6622-5743
![Sample our Politics & International Relations journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5947/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Politics-International-Relations.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
This paper looks at the possibilities of fiction in understanding intelligence, taking two female 20th century writers as case studies, Barbara Pym, and Muriel Spark. It considers how they did or did not draw on their wartime experience in their fiction. It asks why fiction still matters in an era of ever-more accessible archives and public records. It concludes that authorial choice, self-censorship, redacting and editing by others suppressed Barbara Pym’s official wartime experience as an Examiner or censor. It suggests that the role was undervalued both at the time and subsequently as a source of intelligence. The paper concludes that Muriel Spark exploited to the full a short exposure to black propaganda, highlighting how three of her works of fiction offer readers insights into ethical questions of deception, manipulation, and surveillance.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. Masterman, Double-Cross System; Jones, Most Secret War; Winterbotham, The Ultra Secret.
2. Lopez, “Muriel Spark and the Art of Deception”, 969–986.
3. Holt, A lot to ask, 113.
4. Byrne, Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym, 608–610.
5. Ibid., 308.
6. Ibid., 333.
7. Torrance and Morenweiser, British Empire Civil Censorship Devices, 56.
8. Ibid., 52.
9. Pym, Excellent Women, 11.
10. Andrew, Defence of the Realm.
11. Herman, Intelligence Power Peace War.
12. TNA, DEFE 1/334, History of Censorship Department.
13. TNA, INF 1/473, Rules regarding treatment within the Ministry.
14. TNA, INF 1/451, Censorship Instructions.
15. Ibid., 3 February 1940.
16. Ibid., 18 April 1940.
17. TNA, INF 1/450, Organisation of Postal and Telegraph Censorship.
18. Ibid.
19. Torrance and Morenweiser, British Empire Civil Censorship Devices, 40–55.
20. TNA, KV 4/333, Correspondence regarding ‘History of Censorship’.
21. Bodleian, MS Pym 107, 16 December 1941.
22. TNA, INF 1/473, Report of Committee on Censorship.
23. TNA, INF 1/472, Minute of 16 July 1940.
24. Cole, Propaganda, Censorship and Irish Neutrality, Preface ix.
25. Ibid., 5–6.
26. Ibid., 9.
27. Ibid., 9.
28. Ibid., 11.
29. Ibid., 15.
30. Ibid., 87.
31. TNA, INF 1/472, Treatment within the Ministry.
32. Ibid.
33. TNA, DEFE 1/67, Minute from Director- General.
34. Ibid.
35. Ibid.
36. See note 20.
37. Bodleian, MS Pym 107, 8 December 1941.
38. Holt and Pym, A Very Private Eye, 109.
39. Bodleian, MS Pym 107, 29 May 194.
40. Allestree, Barbara Pym: Passionate Force, 35; Wyatt-Brown, Barbara Pym: Critical Biography, 60–61; Byrne, Adventures of Barbara Pym, 336–339.
41. Holt and Pym, A Very Private Eye, 119.
42. TNA, ADM 1/26896, Naval Censorship.
43. Ibid.
44. TNA, INF 1/456, internal postal censorship policy.
45. The National Archives, ‘Invergordon Mutiny’. https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/thirties-britain/invergordon-mutiny/ accessed 13/09/2023.
46. Holt and Pym, A Very Private Eye,175.
47. Bodleian, MS Pym 83–87.
48. Pym, So Very Secret.
49. Bodleian, MS Pym, 12/1–4.
50. TNA, KV 4/2, History of the Security Service.
51. TNA, KV 4/20, Security Service’s regional organisation.
52. See note 51.
53. Holt, A lot to Ask, 99.
54. Bodleian, MS Pym 83–87, 5 December 1944.
55. Bodleian, MS Pym 109.
56. Byrne, Adventures of Barbara Pym, 639, citing Anderton, The Oldie, 1 January 2020 https://www.pressreader.com/uk/the-oldie/20200101/281621012189197
57. Ibid., 608–609.
58. The Guardian, ‘“She played it down”’. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/06/she-played-it-down-bletchley-park-codebreaker-dies-at-99. Accessed 15/09/2023.
59. Morrison and Burton, “Secrets, Leaks and the Novel”, 71–95.
60. Ive, Woman Who Censored Churchill, 10; 149.
61. Shute, Requiem for a Wren, 116–118.
62. See note 12.
63. The National Archives, “Political Warfare Executive”.
64. Spark, Curriculum Vitae: Autobiography, 148.
65. Garnett, Secret History of PWE, 431.
66. See note 2.
67. Stannard, Muriel Spark: the Biography, 69.
68. Delmar, Black Boomerang: an autobiography, 218.
69. Ibid., 154; 217.
70. Garnett, Secret History of PWE, xv.
71. Ibid., xiv.
72. Ibid., 32.
73. The TNA catalogue shows CAB 102/610 as Political Warfare Executive, D Garnett: unpublished narrative, final version. It is not digitised and therefore cannot be downloaded, making Garnett’s book a more accessible resource.
74. Garnett, Secret History of PWE, 384.
75. Ibid., 45.
76. Delmar, Black Boomerang: An Autobiography, 11–12.
77. Ibid., 182–3
78. Ibid., 222–224; 227–228.
79. Ibid., 134–135.
80. Ibid., 149.
81. Spark, Curriculum Vitae: Autobiography, 148.
82. Stannard, Muriel Spark: the Biography, 70.
83. Spark, Curriculum Vitae: Autobiography, 154.
84. Stannard, Muriel Spark: the Biography, 174.
85. Spark, Curriculum Vitae: Autobiography, 205
86. Ibid., 202.
87. Stannard, Muriel Spark: the Biography, 176; 230.
88. Spark, Curriculum Vitae: Autobiography, 11–22; 185–186; Stannard, Muriel Spark: the Biography, 225–228.
89. Spark, Curriculum Vitae: Autobiography, 159.
90. Spark, Hothouse by East River, 6.
91. Spark, The Abbess of Crewe.
92. Spark, Territorial Rights, 194–197.
93. Ibid., 146–152.
94. Ibid., 235.
95. Delmar, Black Boomerang: An Autobiography, 100.
96. Durham University, “The Political Warfare Executive”.
97. Delmar, Black Boomerang: An Autobiography, 299.
98. A catalogue search for Political Warfare Executive of The National Archive returns 963 results for the period 1925–1949 when accessed 8 August 2023.
99. The National Archives, “Political Warfare Establishment Papers”.
100. Smith, The Routledge International Handbook.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Claire Smith
Claire Smith is an independent researcher. She has worked for the FCO, now FCDO, the UK Cabinet Office and a Swiss bank. Since 2007, she has been a visiting professor, lecturer, and speaker at several UK universities.