 First edition | |
| Author | James Leasor |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Series | Jason Love |
| Genre | Spy thriller |
| Publisher | Heinemann (UK) Lippincott (US) |
Publication date | 1964 |
| Media type | |
| Followed by | Passport to Peril |
Passport to Oblivion is a 1964 spy novel by the British writer James Leasor. It was the first of nine novels featuring the character Jason Love.
A country doctor is recruited by British intelligence to go to Iran to investigate the recent disappearance of a British agent.
K, a British agent is assassinated in Tehran. Fearing that the MI6 has been penetrated by the recent defections of agents to the USSR, the deputy head of MI6, MacGillivray needs to turn to someone who is not on any list of MI6 staff. He turns to Jason Love, a West Country doctor who had done some intelligence work for MacGillivray in India during World War II. Love is about to leave on holiday when contacted by MacGillivray, but is persuaded to find out what is going on under the cover of attending a medical conference in Tehran. Love is a classic car enthusiast and drives a very rare US built Cord. MacGillivray uses the hook of seeing an even rarer Cord Le Baron which is in Tehran as the bait to get Love to accept the mission.
Whilst changing planes in Rome Love is met by MacGillivray’s contact, a model called Simone. The two get along well, causing Love to miss his flight; the plane he should have been on explodes shortly after take-off. Love starts to get suspicious about Simone.
Love arrives in Tehran and meets another agent, Parkington, who has also been dispatched to Tehran on the same mission. Together they discover a communist plot to assassinate the pro-British Shah of Iran during a visit to Persepolis, thereby threatening Britain's Eastern oil treaties.
Parkington is wounded but Love manages to stop the assassination. However, when escaping, he is captured by the Russians who are behind the plot.
They put Love on a plane touring the world, the so-called "Dove of Peace" mission, and try to extract information from him. Also on board is Simone.
A Russian defector reveals Love's location to the British intelligence service. When the plane flies over the frozen wastes in the North of Canada, the British arrange a fake emergency to force the plane to land, enabling Love to escape. Simone and her Russian handler are killed in the process.
There is a lot of crossover in the backstories of Jason Love and James Leasor. Both Love and Leasor share the same biography up to their war service in Burma. They both went up to Oriel College afterwards but while Love read medicine, Leasor took a degree in English. Leasor had thought about studying to be a doctor before military service, however the inspiration for Love as a country doctor was provided by his elder sister, Dr Mary Meyers, who was a GP in Stogumber, Somerset (where Love has his practise) for fifty years.
James Leasor was also very keen on classic cars. He owned a Cord, like Love – it was the one that was driven by David Niven in Where the Spies Are and so was able to describe its idiosyncrasies from personal knowledge.
The idea of the reluctant amateur spy also came from Leasor’s time as a foreign correspondent during the 1950s, when it was common for journalists to be asked to do small unofficial, and therefore deniable, jobs by members of the British intelligence community.
In 1966 it was made into a British film Where the Spies Are directed by Val Guest and starring David Niven, Françoise Dorléac and John Le Mesurier. [1]
In 2019 it was made into an audio drama by Spiteful Puppet starring George Lazenby, Terence Stamp, Michael Brandon, Glynis Barber and Nickolas Grace. [2]
Spy fiction is a genre of literature involving espionage as an important context or plot device. It emerged in the early twentieth century, inspired by rivalries and intrigues between the major powers, and the establishment of modern intelligence agencies. It was given new impetus by the development of fascism and communism in the lead-up to World War II, continued to develop during the Cold War, and received a fresh impetus from the emergence of rogue states, international criminal organizations, global terrorist networks, maritime piracy and technological sabotage and espionage as potent threats to Western societies. As a genre, spy fiction is thematically related to the novel of adventure, the thriller and the politico-military thriller.
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The Cambridge Five were a ring of spies in the United Kingdom that passed information to the Soviet Union during the Second World War and the Cold War and was active from the 1930s until at least the early 1950s. None of the known members were ever prosecuted for spying. The number and membership of the ring emerged slowly, from the 1950s onwards.
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Oswald Rayner was a British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) field agent who operated covertly in the Russian Empire during the First World War. He is believed by some to have been involved in the final murder plot against Grigori Rasputin, but "the archives of the British intelligence service (MI6) do not hold a single document linking Rayner, Hoare, or any other British agent or diplomat to the murder."
James Leasor was a prolific British author who wrote historical books and thrillers, and was one of the best-selling British authors of the 20th century. After beginning his writing career as a journalist he wrote more than 50 books, some of which were made into films, including his 1978 historical novel Boarding Party, the story of a secret incident from the Second World War, which became The Sea Wolves (1980) starring Gregory Peck, Roger Moore and David Niven.
Where the Spies Are is a 1966 British comedy adventure film directed by Val Guest and starring David Niven, Françoise Dorléac, John Le Mesurier, Cyril Cusack and Richard Marner. It was based on the 1964 James Leasor book Passport to Oblivion, which was also the working title of the film. MGM intended to make a Jason Love film series, but the idea was shelved.
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The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6, is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligence in support of the UK's national security. SIS is one of the British intelligence agencies and the Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service ("C") is directly accountable to the Foreign Secretary.
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Light of My Death is a 1993 spy comic book featuring Ian Fleming's secret agent, James Bond in the central role of the plot, written by Das Petrou and illustrated by John Watkiss. It was published by Dark Horse Comics in issues #8-11 of Dark Horse Comics. It includes the return of a Bond girl from a Fleming novel, Tatiana Romanova from From Russia, with Love (1957).
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Spiteful Puppet is a British company that produces books, stage plays and audio plays. Among their many releases includes a long running audio series based on Robin of Sherwood alongside many books and audio films.