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The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington by Jennet Conant
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The Little-Known Story of Roald Dahl's Years as a Spy in Washington
A Review by Jonathan Yardley

In March 1942 Roald Dahl, a British airman who had been severely wounded in battle, was informed that he had been posted to the British Embassy in Washington as an assistant air attache. "When he heard the news," Jennet Conant writes, "Dahl protested, 'Oh no, sir, please, sir -- anything but that, sir!" He was 26 years old and wanted to be in the thick of things, not shoved aside in a desk job an ocean away from the battlefront. Not long after reaching Washington, though, Dahl was "caught up in the complex web of intrigue masterminded by [William] Stephenson, the legendary Canadian spymaster, who outmaneuvered the FBI and State Department and managed to create an elaborate clandestine organization whose purpose was to weaken the isolationist forces in America and influence U.S. policy in favor of Britain." Conant continues:

"Tall, handsome, and intelligent, Dahl had all the makings of an ideal operative. A courageous officer wounded in battle, smashing looking in his dress uniform,...
 
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