The Lifeline

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The Lifeline
The Lifeline.jpg
First edition
Author Phyllis Bottome
Country United Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
GenreThriller
Publisher Faber and Faber
Publication date
1946
Media typePrint

The Lifeline (sometimes written as The Life-Line) is a 1946 thriller novel by the British writer Phyllis Bottome. [1] It has been suggested as a direct influence on Ian Fleming, who had once attended a school run by Bottome, and his later creation of the James Bond stories. Equally the protagonist Mark Chalmers may have been partly based on Fleming himself. [2] It was the only spy novel written by Bottome. [3]

Contents

Synopsis

An Eton schoolmaster heading off on his annual visit to the Austrian Alps, which has recently been annexed by Germany agrees to a casual request from a Foreign Office friend to carry a message the country. Before long he finds himself embroiled in the anti-Nazi resistance and targeted by the Gestapo.

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References

  1. Lasnner p.230
  2. Buckton p.261-262
  3. Buckton p.262

Bibliography