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Welcome to Spycast from the Secret Files of the International Spy Museum in

Washington, D.C. I'm Mark Stout historian at the museum.

I'm a PhD author and historian who served for 13 years as an

analyst in the US Intelligence Committee. Every month the museum brings you

interesting talks with authors, scholars, and practitioners who has something to

do with the world of intelligence and espionage.

Today I'm talking with Dr Wesley Wark, a longtime student of both the real world of intelligence

and also the popular culture of intelligence and also the popular culture of

intelligence. Dr. Work is a professor of international relations at the

University of Toronto and is also a visiting professor at the University of

Ottawa in fact I'm sitting in his office in

Ottawa right now and in addition to his academic endeavors he is presently

contemplating writing a spy novel so Wesley it's it's a it's a it's a delight to have you here and thank you so much

for joining us at the International Spy Museum. My pleasure Mark. Tell me the

British were the inventors as we generally think about it, of the spy novel.

When did that happen and why was it that the British, as opposed to, say, the Americans or some

other country invented modern spy fiction?

It's a great question and we're in the fortunate position I think of being able to pinpoint the actual date of birth of the spy fiction genre in ways that you can't always do in terms of historical events.

The first spy novels really were written by British authors and published by British novels really were written by British publishing houses in the in the years

between 1900 and 1914 and there are a small number of them but they're're very important in terms of the way in which they lay down the foundations for their genre.

Now, why Britain? Why British authors? I think there are a number of reasons for this.

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