Portrait of the Spy as a Young Man: A gripping WWII espionage thriller by a former special forces officer

A thrilling SOE spy novel by a former special forces officer who is ‘poised to inherit the mantle of John le Carre’

‘Edward Wilson seems poised to inherit the mantle of John le Carre’ Irish Independent

‘More
George Smiley than James Bond, Catesby will delight those readers

looking for less blood and more intelligence in their spy thrillers’ Publishers Weekly

Cambridge, 1941. A teenage William Catesby leaves his studies to join the war effort.

Parachuted into Occupied France as an SOE officer, he witnesses remarkable feats of bravery during the

French Resistance.

Yet he is also privy to infighting and betrayal - some of the Maquisards are more concerned with controlling the peace than fighting the war. Double agents and informers abound, and with torture a certainty if he is taken, Catesby knows there is no one he can trust.

Passed from safe house to safe house, with the Abwehr on his tail, he is drawn towards Lyon, a city of backstreets and blind alleys. His mission is simple: thwart an act of treachery that could shape the future of France.

‘Edward Wilson’s excellent Portrait of the Spy as a Young Man draws on his own special forces training’

Independent

‘Engaging … Dynamic … Wilson’s fascination is as much with how the spy betrays himself as with how

he manipulates others’ The Times

Praise for Edward Wilson:

‘Stylistically sophisticated … Wilson knows how to hold the reader’s attention’ W.G. Sebald

‘A reader is really privileged to come across something like this’ Alan Sillitoe

‘All too often, amid the glitzy gadgetry of the spy thriller, all the
fast cars and sexual adventures, we lose sight of the essential

seriousness of what is at stake. John le Carre reminds us, often, and so does Edward Wilson’ Independent