I recently heard about a book by Leonard Mosley entitled The Druid. Written in 1981, it tells the tale of Welshman Gwyn Evans who, as an undetected spy of the German Abwehr, apparently betrayed the Dieppe Raid in 1942. In his book, Mosley also claims that double-agent Gösta Caroli was condemned to death and executed. […]
Gösta Caroli – Double Agent and Fox Farmer Read More »
It always amazes me, the tangential relationships I discover that touch on the Josef Jakobs story. On 13 June 1941, during an interrogation with Camp 020 officer, Lt. George F. Sampson, Josef mentioned that: Dr. Paul List, a Russian Jew who immigrated to Germany, can confirm that I am anti-Nazi. List is a professional chess
The German Spy and the Russian-Jewish Chessmaster Read More »
I have written a series of blog posts about Robin W. G. Stephens as he played a pivotal role in the Josef Jakobs story as commandant of Camp 020 interrogation centre. A couple of months ago I had a fascinating email exchange with Nick Hinton, a former commander of the 2nd Gurkha Regiment, and now
Robin W.G. Stephens and the Wana Column (1920-1921) Read More »
The Book Traitor, Lodger, German Spy, Tony Rowland. APS Publications, 2018. Summary and Review You can’t spend years researching one of the WW2 spies (Josef Jakobs) without getting sucked into the stories of the other spies! One of the most fascinating stories is that of Jan Willem ter Braak, the alias of Dutchman Engelbertus Fukken
New Fiction Book – Traitor, Lodger, German Spy by Tony Rowland (2018) Read More »
Today was D-Day… submission day of the manuscript. The last few weeks have been serious nose-to-the-grindstone… tidying up all the loose ends and doing multiple re-reads and corrections. After all that activity, it was kind of anti-climactic to hit the “Send” button with two documents (manuscript and photo captions) and twenty photographs. There were no
Adventures in Publishing – Manuscript Submitted to The History Press Read More »
Today is a day of significance – the 77th anniversary of Josef Jakobs’ execution at the Tower of London. It also marks “T minus 1 month… the manuscript is due at the The History Press on September 15. Things are slowly coming together. I’ve been pruning the manuscript and then sanding it down. I’ve managed
Update on “The Spy in the Tower” Publishing Adventure Read More »
Getting a book published is no mean feat. There’s the research, the writing, the re-writing, and more re-writing and maybe some more research. Then a publisher needs to be found and then… then the author has to take their baby and hack it to bits. Seriously. My manuscript is in the 170,000 word range and
Adventures in Book Publishing – The Great Purge Read More »
N.B. 2021 03 25 – I believe van den Braak has signed a deal with a publisher in England, so hopefully his book will soon be available in English. A couple of years ago, Dutch author, Jan Willem van den Braak published a book (in Dutch) on Dutch spy Engelbertus Fukken (alias Jan Willem ter
New Book on Operation Lena (in Dutch) Read More »
In her 1953 statement to police about the Bella in the Wych Elm murder, Una Abel Mossop stated that: “The only child of our marriage was born in 1932 and he was christened Julian and at the present time, he is somewhere in America.” Seemingly an open and shut statement except… when it comes to
Bella in the Wych Elm – Jill Mossop Read More »
The West Mercia Police files on the Bella in the Wych Elm mystery contain many interesting documents. There is one file, however, that has the most intriguing title: “Folder 11 – Possible Suspect Julian Mossop”. It turns out that Julian Mossop was the son of Jack Mossop and Una Abel. Let’s take a look. Julian
Bella in the Wych Elm – Julian Mossop Read More »