Spies from Liverpool?

I wanted to blog again about William Boyd's spy thriller Gabriel's Moon. I finished it a little while ago, but there's one funny piece of tidbit which caught my attention. Near the end of the novel, main character Gabriel Dax comes across a woman from Liverpool, who is almost immediately hostile to him. There is not much more to say about her, she may or may not be a spy for the Eastern Block and plays some role in the plot, then pretty much disappears from it. I suspect she will reappear in future novels, as this is meant to be the first title of a trilogy. Anyway, I find it interesting as I lived about a year in Liverpool. I don't think the city qualifies as a city of espionage just yet (so I won't mention it in my blog series on the matter), however it's not the first time I have seen Liverpool mentioned in a spy novel. I might tell you more in another post.

Spies at Wimpy

As you may know, I am currently reading William Boyd's Gabriel's Moon. It's a spy thriller set in the sixties. And there is a little detail that may seem trivial, but that I find quite interesting: Gabriel Dax, the main character of the novel, has a girlfriend who works at... Wimpy. I know Wimpy. I have been to Wimpy repeatedly. I love Wimpy, maybe my favourite gentrified fast food chain. And I find it interesting that in a genre that is still associated heavily with glamour and exotism, there is in this spy novel a protagonist who also has a burger restaurants chain as part of his reality. And a girlfriend who smells of smells of burgers and chips when she gets home. It makes the whole world of Gabriel's Moon more relatable. Moral of the story: Next time I go to Wimpy, I will take a good look at the staff and the customers. You never know...

Wanderlust (word of the day)

As you may know, I have started reading William Boyd's Gabriel's Moon. So far it is a solid spy thriller set in the sixties. And it made me discover a term, which I have seen before, but never paid attention to it: wanderlust. It is our word of the day. It means "a strong desire to wander, to travel and explore the world". I have ambivalent feelings about it: I do experience it sometimes and I suspect it is because of wanderlust that I ended up in England. Wanderlust made me an expat, if you will. Anyway, I am not complaining and whether you experience wanderlust or not, it's a feeling that comes in handy when your are writing an adventure novel or... a spy thriller. And reading a spy thriller, or indeed any other novel where the protagnist travels, might make you feel wanderlust yourself. Anyway, that's the word of the day and my take on it. What do you think about wanderlust? Did you ever experience it?

A book for Spy Wednesday

Today is Holy Wednesday, which is also called Spy Wednesday. I prefer to call it Spy Wednesday, because it's a much cooler name. And every Spy Wednesday, I try to commemorate by blogging something espionage related. This year, I thought that I would start reading a spy thriller to mark the date. So I bought William Boyd's Gabriel's Moon at some point last year, I'm not even sure where. I think I might give it a go today, as I am between books. Okay, not between books, but between novels, most definitely. And Spy Wednesday is a good excuse as any to read a spy novel.