The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington

Listened to this in the car. It's fascinating. It's another fascinating true story from Jennet Conant. Conant is known for similar books that tell the little-known stories of important developments during WWII. She has chronicled the Manhattan Project, from idea to the bombing of Hiroshima in Tuxedo Park and 109 East Palace as well as the story of Julia and Paul Child's work for the OSS during the war.Dahl (author of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate, inter alia) was an RAF pilot in the early part of WWII. He was badly injured in a plane crash and could no longer fly. He went to work as the air attache at the British Embassy in Washington, but he was really sent there to help convince America to join the war as a member of the British Security Coordination.His overseers at the Embassy did not always know what or why he was doing something for the BSC. They were none too happy with this situation and periodically tried to have Dahl reassigned back to England. The same was not true for the social and political elites in DC. The work required him to work his way into the elite social scene in DC which meant that he was rubbing elbows with, and building relationships with, many of the most important people in the country. In fact, he became friends with the Roosevelts, the Vice President, numerous Congressmen, wealthy businessmen who supported election campaigns, and the doyennes who gave the parties that one just couldn't say no to. He had access to the people that mattered, and he knew how to constructively use that access to influence American policy toward Britain and the war.Dahl also began his career as a writer at this time. He wrote essays about his war time experiences for magazines and began writing children's story books. His book, The Gremlins, attracted the attention of Walt Disney who wanted to make a movie of the book. That didn't work out, but Dahl went on to write for the movies as well. This led him to some of Hollywood's most influential actors, writers, producers and studio heads.Conant does a great job, not just telling us the facts of the situation, but of turning real people into fascinating .characters

I am a big fan of this author and so I had a sense that this would be well researched and the narrative would be captivating. I wasn't disappointed. I knew very little about the secret side of Roald Dahl and his buddies working for British Intelligence inside the USA during the war. I highly recommend this book. You will learn much and your perspective on how Churchill and "C" (head of MI5) managed to push their agenda along even though its client was F.D.R.

Thoroughly enjoyed this book, can't confirm how true any of it is, but it makes for fascinating reading.

If you fancy yourself as a student of WWII you must read this book. It is hard to imagine what Washington D.C. was like during WWII. You can guess what it must have been like and read all kinds of books about government contracts and who the major players were. Read this book and you'll have met the decision makers in a human way that you've probably not seen anywhere else. Its the D.C. we all have suspected but never seen from the inside. The real persons the author reveals to us in her word paintings are so much more than simply a recitation of facts. Their motivations and personalities come alive. I had some idea previously that the Brits had maneuvered the U.S. into being their allies. We know that Roosevelt and Churchill were instrumental in that effort. Previously unknown to me, was how involved British Intelligence was in manipulating American attitudes towards helping the Brits. I had no idea that Roald Dahl was part of British Intelligence and an ace pilot. The author leads us into Dahl's initial foray into writing. A great and fascinating read. I'm surprised no one has made a movie from the book of Dahl's exploits during WWII. The author has practically written the script.

The topic is great: Roald Dahl's work for British intelligence in WWII Washington, DC. However, the book is full of small annoying errors, examples of which are: implying that cherry blossoms are in bloom in Washington, DC, in late April (pages 1 and 11) [they are open in late March or early April only]; using the word "attenuated" to mean "large" (page 2) [it means small]; calling Cardiff a "small fishing village" (page 7) [it is the capital city of Wales]; saying "usually spiritual" instead of "unusually spiritual" (page 47); etc. In addition the book's font is smaller than most books of similar size and topic, and the printing is exceptionally faint compared to other books. Thus, to read it in the evening requires a very bright light and it is still not comfortable to read.In summary: poor proofreading and/or editing, and poor printing.

Love this book

Well written

A very interesting history of the British espionage ring in Washington during WWII. Who would have thought that the writer of Charlie and the Chocolate factory would have had such an interesting life before he became a children's book writer.

garbage

An interesting story of Roald Dahl's early adult years but the book, for me, suffers from lazy writing and poor editing.For example, there is the frequent use of England as a euphemism for the United Kingdom.There is laughably poor knowledge and research: Dahl's mother "left Norway to go live with him (Dahl's father) in the small fishing village of Cardiff in the south of Wales".Endless spelling errors - airmen living in Nissan huts - presumably Japanese-made Nissen huts.There are frequent references to the United Nations during wartime. The UN was not founded until 1945 after the end of the Second World War.If you can put up with all of these irritations, you might enjoy the book but I find it difficult to recommend.

The premise of this book is very interesting - that British influencers (let’s not call them spies) were sent to the United States to help push Washington toward the European theatre of War. However it’s yet another American book with very little basic knowledge of British history or terminology - the author consistently refers to the UK as “England” - clearly dismissing the fact that England ceased to exist as a nation state at the act of union. “England” apparently fought the War against Germany gallantly alone until the heroic Americans came to save the day - so let’s just ignore the Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish contribution never mind the rest of the commonwealth states who contributed, because according to this author lazy language is much easier than accuracy.