SS-GB by Len Deighton
375 pages, Mass Market Paperback
Published April, 1980 by Ballantine Books
While a major bestseller in the 70s and recently made into a TV mini-series SS-GB by Len Deighton was a novel I never heard of. It is an alternate history but it is not considered a work of science fiction like Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick. Famously Phil’s two most important editors and publishing mentors Don Wollheim and Tony Boucher initially dismissed the novel as not Science fiction. It is Science fiction as it has Nazis on Mars and multiple realities, but I think their initial reaction was surface-level and missed the nuance. Beyond High Castle, there is a wide variety of novels, movies, and stories that explore different outcomes of WWII with or without Science Fiction. I have been wanting to explore this field more.
SS-GB has more in common with straight alternate history like Roth’s The Plot Against America. It first came on my radar when I read Gavriel D. Rosenfeld’s The World Hitler Never Made, a genius academic book. Rosenfeld had my interest with this quote “SS-GB was most significant for its nuanced depiction of collaboration.” SS-GB is a genre novel just not a SF novel, it is a detective noir that exchanges Chandler’s LA for England in 1941 if the British empire fell to the Nazis.
Deighton is a member of the generation who survived the war, and as such it is a fascinating look at fascism, occupation, collaboration, spy craft and it is all kicked off by a murder mystery and Scotland Yard detective who is not just trying to solve a crime and also deal with the infighting of the SS and various branches of the Nazi war Machine.
As the author of (the soon to be released) Unfinished PKD, I am very aware that PKD intended for at least one of his attempts to do a sequel to Man In the High Castle to be very much about that infighting in the factions of Nazi Germany. So in that sense, I found the connections interesting.
SS-GB plays with the conventions of the genre, starting with a dead body that was murdered in a situation that doesn’t make sense to the lead investigator Detective Douglas Archer. The victim seems badly burned but there is no sign of fire, he was shot. There is a curious reporter from An American paper who is reporting in Nazi-occupied Britain. She knew the victim. “He was helping me with a piece I’m writing about Americans who stayed here right through the fighting.” Little lines throughout this book suggest wider stories, and despite not being SF the World-building is very well done.
If you don’t want any spoilers at all this is almost time for you to back out of this review. This book is mostly effective. By modern standards the prose is thin but I prefer the thinner more direct storytelling. It is a good noir, a better Alt-history and it is worth reading. The deeper reasons why this book is good and should be read involve a bit of spoilers.
The mystery turns out to be connected by SS efforts to create an atomic weapon, but that is just one part of politics that drives the parts inside of the machine. There is a resistance plot, to free the King, double agents, and various forces involved in the occupation. There is some action, and the mystery is solved with lots of novel to go. The overlooked part of the reaction to this novel is the theme of ‘it could happen here.” The point is not as forceful as The Plot Against America or as on the nose as the pre-war warning It Can Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis that suddenly became relevant again when Trump was close to getting his Vice President murdered for not handing him the country.
The worst moments of SS-GB involve the action to free the king, the best are in the acceptance of evil and the pain of the British characters living under occupation. The parts of the story that relate to the development of atomic weapons make sense and work far better than the stuff about the King. SS-GB works best when it is focused on the stress of living under occupation. The Blitz was awful but it is interesting to think how the Brits would have reacted and compare it to the French experience. Doing this through the lens of a detective novel is effective. I approve.
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If you enjoy reading fact based espionage thrillers, of which there are only a handful of decent ones, do try reading Bill Fairclough’s Beyond Enkription. It is an enthralling unadulterated fact based autobiographical spy thriller and a super read as long as you don’t expect John le Carré’s delicate diction, sophisticated syntax and placid plots.
What is interesting is that this book is so different to any other espionage thrillers fact or fiction that I have ever read. It is extraordinarily memorable and unsurprisingly apparently mandatory reading in some countries’ intelligence agencies’ induction programs. Why?
Maybe because the book has been heralded by those who should know as “being up there with My Silent War by Kim Philby and No Other Choice by George Blake”; maybe because Bill Fairclough (the author) deviously dissects unusual topics, for example, by using real situations relating to how much agents are kept in the dark by their spy-masters and (surprisingly) vice versa; and/or maybe because he has survived literally dozens of death defying experiences including 20 plus attempted murders.
The action in Beyond Enkription is set in 1974 about a real maverick British accountant who worked in Coopers & Lybrand (now PwC) in London, Nassau, Miami and Port au Prince. Initially in 1974 he unwittingly worked for MI5 and MI6 based in London infiltrating an organised crime gang. Later he worked knowingly for the CIA in the Americas. In subsequent books yet to be published (when employed by Citicorp, Barclays, Reuters and others) he continued to work for several intelligence agencies. Fairclough has been justifiably likened to a posh version of Harry Palmer aka Michael Caine in the films based on Len Deighton’s spy novels.
Beyond Enkription is a must read for espionage cognoscenti. Whatever you do, you must read some of the latest news articles (since August 2021) in TheBurlingtonFiles website before taking the plunge and getting stuck into Beyond Enkription. You’ll soon be immersed in a whole new world which you won’t want to exit. Intriguingly, the articles were released seven or more years after the book was published. TheBurlingtonFiles website itself is well worth a visit and don’t miss the articles about FaireSansDire. The website is a bit like a virtual espionage museum and refreshingly advert free.
Returning to the intense and electrifying thriller Beyond Enkription, it has had mainly five star reviews so don’t be put off by Chapter 1 if you are squeamish. You can always skip through the squeamish bits and just get the gist of what is going on in the first chapter. Mind you, infiltrating international state sponsored people and body part smuggling mobs isn’t a job for the squeamish! Thereafter don’t skip any of the text or you’ll lose the plots. The book is ever increasingly cerebral albeit pacy and action packed. Indeed, the twists and turns in the interwoven plots kept me guessing beyond the epilogue even on my second reading.
The characters were wholesome, well-developed and beguiling to the extent that you’ll probably end up loving those you hated ab initio, particularly Sara Burlington. The attention to detail added extra layers of authenticity to the narrative and above all else you can’t escape the realism. Unlike reading most spy thrillers, you will soon realise it actually happened but don’t trust a soul.
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