BRITAIN’S FORGOTTEN TRAITOR

A new biography from Amberley publishing lays bare the life of a forgotten Nazi spy

Author Ed Perkins Publisher Amberley Price £20 Released 15 February 2021

“He is evidently a shrewd customer and lacks neither guile nor cunning” was how Lieutenant Burke, a security man at Poole Quay, chose to describe Oswald John Job – the titular traitor in Ed Perkins’ new biography. During his introduction, Perkins loosely blames his initial interest in Job on meeting renowned espionage author John Le Carré. We say loosely, because he attributes to Le Carré only his fascination with the psychology and motivation of a spy. It’s an intriguing subject, one which clearly interested Le Carré himself, whose books obsess over the twin themes of identity and betrayal. However, we finished Perkins’ work wondering if he had taken rather more than that from the master of espionage fiction as Britain’s Forgotten Traitor works both as a biography and also as a gripping spy novel.

As the title suggests, the majority of the book deals with Job’s time as a supposed spy and the circumstances surrounding both this and his eventual downfall. Yet we begin with Job as a boy and a potted history of his prewar years. Perkins is brutally honest in his portrayal of Job, not hiding the man’s flaws nor overly condemning him as a villain. For example, early in the book Perkins shares letters from Job, noting the obvious care and consideration towards his brother while highlighting the lack of interest in his own child.

This paints a very clear picture of the kind of man Perkins suspects Job to have been, before suddenly he is imprisoned in Nazi-occupied France.

From here we learn of his time in an internment camp and then of his later escape to neutral Spain. Or do we? As the wool is suddenly pulled from over our eyes we realise that what we have just read was in fact Job’s own cover story – and maybe not reality. It is from here that we enter into some of the most fascinating parts of the book and the investigation into Job by both the authorities at Poole and MI5, and then the trial and Job’s eventual execution.

Perkins goes into incredible detail on almost every matter and the pictures he paints are extremely vivid. He makes sure to incorporate brief biographies of other important individuals within the text too, for example John Amery, the son of Cabinet member Leo Amery and fascist sympathiser. If we had to level one complaint towards the book, it would be that some of these little detours veer quite far from the main road. For example, almost an entire chapter is spent conjuring an atmosphere of wartime Britain. However, thankfully these moments are rare and for the most part the depth and detail that the author goes into is greatly appreciated.

Perkins has written an engaging piece of espionage history covering, as the title suggests, an often forgotten Allied traitor. His style, utilising an almost thriller-writing approach to the story, paints an intriguing mystery and keeps the reader guessing. Britain’s Forgotten Traitor is certainly one for both fans of espionage and World War II.

“Britain’s Forgotten Traitor works as both a biography and gripping spy novel”