Transcription

This is a fun spy novel written by Kate Atkinson.  I have not read other books by Atkinson yet so I do not know if this is her usual writing style.  But this book was so entertaining that I will go pick up some of her other books to find out.

Transcription is a wise, funny quick paced spy thriller.  It is a novel starts out 1981 as Juliet Armstrong looks back on her days as a young woman.   People in England still live with the proud sense of patriotism and love the pomp and circumstance.  A royal wedding is about to happen.

Back in 1940 after her mother's death, Juliet is scooped up by the MI5 to assist with the war effort. In the mist of the war, Juliet is employed to transcribe meetings that are being recorded between a group of fascist sympathisers and a man named Godfrey Toby, whom the fifth columnists believe is a Gestapo agent but is actually a British spy monitoring his informers.

As things get more complicated Juliet herself is recruited to spy and given an alias.  She learns to shift between different names and persona.  Life becomes a game of deception even in the most mundane experiences.  "It was a Saturday afternoon and here they were, Juliet thought, Englishwomen doing what Englishwomen did best wherever they were in the world - taking tea and having cozy chats..."

Then there are some scenes after the war when Juliet now working for the BBC runs into Toby again and some of the tragedies of the war are brought to light.  A clearer view of what they were fighting for. 

In another instance, as Juliet goes about her business of spying and transcribing she thinks,
"The future was coming nearer, one relentless goose step after the next.  Juliet could still remember when Hitler had seemed like a harmless clown.  No one was amused now."

This is so appropriate to that time period and so eerily relevant to our current times. Reading this book and thinking about our current world situation and questioning personal freedoms and patriotism .