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Independent press Barbreck will publish Lieutenant Colonel Tim Spicer's second book A Dangerous Enterprise: Secret War at Sea, dubbed a "thrilling and definitive account of one of the Second World War’s most audacious clandestine operations".
World rights were acquired directly from the author. It will be published on 7th September 2021.
The synopsis reads: "A compelling story of a very small and very secret Royal Navy unit that ferried secret agents between England and France, and changed the course of the Second World War. Between 1942 and 1944, the 15th Motor Gunboat Flotilla (15 MGBF) operated between Dartmouth in Devon and the Brittany coast in France. It was a crossing of about 100 miles, every yard of it dangerous.
"Commanded directly by the SIS [Secret Intelligence Service], the extraordinary group of 125 officers and men were thrown together in the most secret of adventures. Their home was a converted paddle steamer and luxury yacht, but their work could not have been more serious."
The unit was instrumental to the success of operations in Var, France, and in Shelbourne, in the US. "Without the Flotilla and its secret war, such intelligence-gathering networks as Jade Fitzroy and Alliance would never have developed, and SOE’s [Special Operations Executive] Var Line and MI9’s Shelburne Escape Line would never have been realised."
Spicer served in the British Army for 20 years and will use his experience of active service and knowledge of intelligence to chart the history of this little-known flotilla. He will draw on in-depth research on both sides of the Channel, including private papers, photos and artefacts of the families of its members and of French agents of the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS).
Barbreck publisher David Campbell, who is also the publisher of Everyman’s Library, said: "This is a great story of extraordinary bravery and what it can achieve. I am proud to be publishing it."
Journalist Jon Swain praised the book. "Tim Spicer has written a thrilling and definitive account of one of the Second World War's most audacious clandestine operations," Swain said. "His book captures perfectly the mood and atmosphere of this secret world. It recounts with clarity and honesty the drama of these crossings, the slip-ups and betrayals, which so often led to capture, torture and death, and the resilience, comradeship and humour shared by those at sea and on land in the face of danger.
"There is enough derring-do here to fill a James Bond novel, no coincidence perhaps, because Ian Fleming, in his wartime role attached to the director of Naval Intelligence, was no stranger to these epic missions. It is a triumph of storytelling.”
Spicer is the author of An Unorthodox Soldier: Peace and War and the Sandline Affair (Mainstream Publishing, 2000).