Of spies and lies

The life of a spy is based on lies, but both these books make an attempt to separate fact from fiction in the stories of their subjects.

The first book tells the remarkable story of how an Australian from a rather unlikely background rose almost to the top of Britain’s foreign spy service, MI6, and was later accused of being not just a double but a triple agent. Charles Howard Ellis, always known as Dick, was born in 1895 in Sydney’s inner-west suburb of Annandale. His mother died when he was four years old. Together with his father, he led an itinerant life as a child and adolescent, even working as a professional cellist in Melbourne. In June 1914, he took ship for England. Arriving just as the Great War commenced, he enlisted in the British Army. Wounded at the Somme and promoted to captain, he finished the war engaged in military intelligence operations in Persia and Russia.