This post was originally published on Audible.co.uk.
Who doesn't love jumping down a little-known history rabbit hole? (The number of fun-factoid newsletters I subscribe to tells a whole story of its own!) Ben Macintyre, author of Operation Mincemeat and a prolific writer of a subgenre I'll affectionately call "secret agent-y history," is a master at unearthing the human minutiae amidst monumental moments, underscoring the personal motivations that drive the timeline we all currently exist in. In Redwood, he delivers a tale that's at once largely unknown, globally impactful, and, at moments, squirmingly unbelievable.
Emily Cox: Having produced a huge volume of well-researched work at a pretty impressive clip, you're incredibly prolific. What is your process? How do you select your subject and approach your research? And do you ever sleep?
Ben Macintyre: I currently publish a book every other year, which usually breaks down into a year of research, and then a year of writing, while adding in other bits and pieces of research, increasingly frantically, as I go. Sometimes the writing of one book overlaps with research for another; I started working on Redwood, for example, five years before publication. I do sleep, but frequently find that I am dreaming in the world of whatever book I am writing.
How did you first uncover the story of Redwood? How well-known is he among historians?
The Redwood case is almost entirely unknown, even among specialist espionage historians. I first heard about it when researching The Spy and the Traitor (some of the MI6 officers were involved in both cases). But the case is taught at The Fort, the MI6 training base, so it is embedded in the collective historical knowledge of the service. More than one officer, both serving and retired, mentioned the outline of the case to me. It sounded so extraordinary I did not fully believe it, until I started digging deeper.
Your storytelling really walks the line between macro-geopolitical systems and personal, intimate stories, and this one really delves into a particular corner of masculine shame. Can you talk a little about how the most vulnerable of human experiences can have huge planet-wide impacts?
That is why I love this story. Most famous spies claim to be motivated by a higher purpose, ideological, moral, humanitarian. Redwood had some of that. His disillusionment with the Soviet system was real and profound. But he was primarily motivated by a shaming sexual secret, his erectile dysfunction, and the belief (misplaced) that Western medicine could cure it. Had he not been motivated to act as he did, then the communist coup in Iran might have happened, the Soviets might have won the Cold War, the US might have responded with nuclear weapons. It all hinged on one man’s very private problem, which helped to shape the world.
In recent years, you have been narrating more of your works in audio. How do you find taking on this role has impacted your approach as a writer?
I love recording my own books. As a writer, I think it makes one more conscious of the cadence of words and phrases. Shorter, simpler words and sentences are easier to narrate, but they also (usually) make for better, clearer English. As a rule of thumb, I find that if a passage is tricky to read out loud, it is probably also unnecessarily hard for the reader to read.
Operation Mincemeat is having more than a moment—can we call it an era? First a documentary, then a film, and now a hit musical. What is it like to see one of your works adapted so broadly? And do you have any adaptation dreams for Redwood?
The different iterations of Mincemeat are astonishing, but a consequence, I think, of the way the wartime deception ruse was dreamed up. Two would-be novelists imagined it up, based on the idea of another novelist (Ian Fleming), who got it from reading yet another novelist (Basil Thompson). It first saw the light of day as a novel by Duff Cooper. Then a half-true account by one of the participants. Then a film, The Man Who Never Was. Then my book, a film based on that, starring Colin Firth, and finally a musical. At every stage, it was re-imagined. What next? A ballet? An opera? A computer game? Redwood: The Musical would be a hoot. The first song-and-dance routine in history framed around the issue of erectile dysfunction.
Finally, are you able to share where you are turning your attention next?
No. I’m not being coy. I am just not sure yet. I have a number of ideas marinating at the moment, and once Redwood is well and truly planted I will plunge into the next…
