ALEX GERLIS In Person With Paul

ALEX GERLIS chats to Paul Burke about his WWII spy thriller THE SECOND TRAITOR, Operation Sea Lion, Hitler as military commander, German spies in England and Alan Furst.

THE SECOND TRAITOR The countdown to invasion begins... It's September 1940, and British intelligence is on high alert: the Nazi invasion of Britain is imminent. The German navy is assembling a vast fleet in Rotterdam to ferry men and materiel across the Channel. Meanwhile, a sinister organisation called The Group – a collection of British and Irish Nazi collaborators – is at work within the UK trying to pave the way for the Wehrmacht. The Invasion Warning Sub-Committee is established to counter this threat, and Charles Cooper, coming in from the cold after the disintegration of The Annexe, joins up and is tasked with cracking this nefarious network. But that is not the only concern for the spy chiefs: the search for double agent ‘Archie’ – the Soviet spy and British traitor – is hotting up: they are now confident he works within MI6, and an elaborate scheme is set up to narrow down the list of suspects… To make things worse, they now know for certain that a second traitor, ‘Bertie’, is also in play. With suspicion at paranoia pitch, can MI6 clean house before the Nazis arrive to help them do it?

ALEX GERLIS was born in Grimsby, Lincolnshire. He worked for the BBC as a journalist for many years, starting out as a researcher on a three-month contract on Panorama and ending his career there nearly thirty years later as Head of Training in the BBC College of Journalism.  In between, he was an editor of a number of Television News programmes. Alex left the BBC in 2011 to concentrate on his writing.  Alex is married to Sonia and lives in west London and has two daughters and two grandsons, even though he is obviously not old enough to be a grandfather. Contrary to what many readers seem to believe, he’s never worked in the world of espionage. Alex has the usual hobbies and interests one expects and has supported Grimsby Town since 1968. His books contain cryptic references to the club, which only Mariners fans will appreciate.

Recommendations Alan Furst, le Carré, Graham Greene, IS Berry.

Paul Burke writes for Monocle Magazine, Crime Time, Crime Fiction Lover and the European Literature Network, Punk Noir Magazine (fiction contribution). He is also a CWA Historical Dagger Judge 2025. His first book An Encyclopedia of  Spy Fiction will be out 2026.

Produced by Junkyard Dog

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