Comedy Of Menace

The ambiguities of war are explored in a spy novel filled with tension and wry humour

- Linda Herrick

English writer Kate Atkinson, known for her sophisticated and sarcastically funny prose, is in sparkling form in her new novel, Transcription, which delves into wartime espionage. The first part of the storyline is a ripper, revolving around Juliet Armstrong, enlisted by MI5 in 1940, at the age of 18, to join a team targeting British Nazi sympathisers.

Juliet is an interesting young lady: sexually innocent but keen to get going, working class, well educated, tough and sardonic. She’s pretty good at lying, too. All the better for her new career as a spy.

Her first assignment is based in a flat in Dolphin Square, in central London, adjacent to a neighbouring flat that has been wired to record a suburban “cast of perfidy” who regularly pop in to engage in treasonous conversations with an undercover MI5 agent.