ASHENDEN

Ashenden is a 1927 by W. Somerset Maugham. It is partly based on the authors experience as a member of British Intelligence in Europe during the First World War. A set of short stories, connected in t...

"Ashenden" is a 1927 by W. Somerset Maugham. It is partly based on the author's experience as a member of British Intelligence in Europe during the First World War.
A set of short stories, connected in theme, featuring Ashenden, “a writer by profession”, who is now a member of the British Secret Service. Like Ian Fleming, Somerset Maugham had himself been a secret agent!
The stories combine Maugham's talent at character detail with a tragic structure where an affecting and sometimes funny person is damaged in the game of national spying. Some regard these as the forerunner of all the more sceptical spy fiction written by such as Eric Ambler, Graham Greene and books such as The Spy Who Came in from the Cold.