Paul Burke in conversation with Edward Wilson for the launch of his new book, Portrait of the Spy as a Young Man

1941: a teenage William Catesby leaves Cambridge to join the army and support the war effort. Parachuted into Occupied France as an SOE officer, he witnesses tragedies and remarkable feats of bravery during the French Resistance.
2014: now in his nineties, Catesby recounts his life to his granddaughter for the first time. Their interviews weave together the historical, the personal and the emotional, skipping across different decades and continents to reveal a complex and conflicted man.
Catesby’s incredible story recounts a life of spying and the trauma of war, but also lost love, yearning, and hope for the future.

📷EDWARD WILSON is a native of Baltimore, he was a decorated Special Forces officer in Vietnam. After leaving the Army, Wilson became an expatriate and gave up US nationality to become a British citizen. He has also lived and worked in Germany and France. The author has made his home in Suffolk since 1976. He was a lecturer at Lowestoft College for twenty-one years and continued to teach in Suffolk schools while becoming a full-time writer. He lives in a remote village with his partner. He is a keen vegetable gardener and runner who loves swimming in rivers and the sea.Edward is the author of eight novels. His debut A River in May was described by Alan Sillitoe as ‘the best Vietnam novel ever’. The Envoy was the first in a series to feature British spy Catesby. The Darkling Spy, The Midnight Swimmer, The Whitehall Mandarin and South Atlantic Requiem followed, taking Catesby from the 1950s to the Falklands War. His new novel published on 15th October, Portrait of the Spy as a Young Man, goes back to the beginning, the origins of Catesby’s career during WWII. Edward is now recognised as one of Britain’s finest espionage writers:

‘A glorious, seething broth of historical fact and old-fashioned spy story’ - The Times
‘Edward Wilson seems poised to inherit the mantle of John le Carré’ --Irish Independent

📷Paul Burke writes The Verdict column for nbmagazine.co.uk online and features for the quarterly magazine, he also contributes interviews, articles and features to crimetime.co.uk and the European Literature Network. Paul has just started a blog Booksplainer.com for the stuff that falls through the cracks and random pieces. He has worked in the public, private and voluntary sector and is a consultant on community issues. Paul is a book collector, lover of literature in translation, a crime fiction aficionado and a member of the CWA.

Book launch of Portrait of the Spy as a Young Man by Edward Wilson