My Adventures as a Spy

The author, Robert Baden-Powell, was a British soldier and spy, and also founded the Boy Scouts. The author's love of adventure is evident in this book, which is a collection of 1- and 2-page essays. After a short series of essays defending espionage as being both useful and honorable, the remainder of the book explains spycraft of the time and particular incidents in which Baden-Powell directly participated. The stories are interesting, and would certainly appeal to many young readers. Occasional use is made of the author's own illustrations, including sketches of fortifications modified for secrecy to resemble much more benign subjects (insects, stain glass windows, etc.) which were spirited back to headquarters. On a historical note, this book is reminiscent of other adventure books by European authors in roughly the same period (Jules Verne, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle). Titles published by Dover tend to be inexpensive, and this book is no exception. Even at full retail, this book is a steal.

Lord Baden-Powell's autobiographical treatise on the basics of spy trade craft is dated, around a hundred years old at this point. The technological innovations since then have changed many aspects of the intelligence profession. On the other hand, the work is inspiring. B-P's passion for human intelligence collection is contagious. Based on this work, it is clear that he loved what he did for the thrill and challenge of it and it was a fringe benefit that it served his country (I am not questioning his patriotism, but his writing makes it clear that his work was his true passion). There are numerous vignettes to illustrate different techniques and principle of tradecraft, mostly with some humerous aspect. My personal favorite was the incident where B-P was collecting on German fortifications in the Balkans. He walked through the German military site drawing pictures of the facility, was stopped, and was able to walk away without being detained. How did he pull this off? It was the butterfly net, book about butterflies, sketch book full of drawings of butterflies, and having the nerve to ask the German soldier if he had seen a specific butterfly. Where were the sketches of the fort? Concealed inside the drawings of the butterflies.... The book is short and aimed at 10-15 year olds, but is enjoyable to anyone with an interest in espionage or the history of espionage. Caveat: If you are a parent and feel that a career in intelligence is not acceptable for your child, keep this book out of your child's hands! Oh, and Baden-Powell went on to found the Boy Scouts. "Scouts" as in "soldiers specializing in tactical intelligence collection"....