SPIES. This item is unavailable.SPIES

In the quiet cul-de-sac where Keith and Stephen live the only immediate signs of the Second World War are the blackout at night and a single random bombsite. But the two friends suspect that the comfortably ordinary houses in the Close and their inhabitants are not what they seem. As Keith, the leader in all their enterprises, authoritatively informs the trusting Stephen, the whole district is riddled with secret passages and underground laboratories - hideaways for any number of murderers, unsung war heroes and secret agents.

Then one day Keith announces an even more disconcerting discovery: the Germans have infiltrated his own family. And when the secret underground world they have postulated emerges from the shadows they find themselves engulfed in mysteries far deeper and more painful than they had bargained for.

In this beautiful new novel Michael Frayn evokes a time and characters which are as vivid now as if they had appeared before us today, confirming his reputation as one of the most outstanding novelists writing today.

Michael Frayn was born in London in 1933 and began his career as a journalist on the Guardian and the Observer. His novels include Towards the End of the Morning, The Trick of It and A Landing on the Sun. Headlong (1999) was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Spies (2002), won the Whitbread Novel Award and Skios (2012) was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. His fifteen plays range from Noises Off to Copenhagen and most recently Afterlife. He is married to the writer Claire Tomalin.