![]() ![]() Much of the dialogue isn’t even intelligible enough for Juliet to transcribe, thanks to the recording technology of the day. But this work is day after day of talk of the weather and biscuits and pets. In most novels, something great would be revealed in these conversations. Although Juliet shows promise, she becomes a glorified secretary, transcribing conversations on the other side of the wall of a bugged London apartment, where Nazi sympathizers meet. Lying her way through her interview, for no reason other than for her own amusement, she unwittingly shows herself to have the qualities of an excellent spy. First directed to be a secretary, she is soon handpicked for MI5 work. Recently orphaned, Juliet applies to the British War Office in 1940. Her book focuses on ordinary Britons pulled into espionage and explores the usefulness, or lack thereof, of much of the information that was gathered.īased on information about real-life spies, Atkinson creates a paradoxically naïve and brazen main character, Juliet Armstrong. ![]() Quite possibly, if it sheds new light on history, as Kate Atkinson’s new novel Transcription does. Does the world need another Second World War spy novel? ![]()
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