Intelligence

Beneath dreaming spires, a group of young philosophers dance and drink and debate questions of right and wrong. JL Austin is the elder statesman, dispensing wisdom between puffs on his pipe; Asa, the handsome prodigy; Ida, the magnetic, irrepressible American scholar setting the cat among the pigeons. Theory is set to become practice as the world beyond their cosy rooms spins towards full-blown war. By 1940, as her friends are called up to do intelligence work, Ida is in need of academic distraction. Fieldwork in the Ardennes takes on a new urgency when she stumbles across secret information that could radically change the direction of the war - but can she persuade her intelligence contacts in London to pay attention, and will they do the right thing? A playful portrait of the minds that helped preserve our freedom, Intelligence is page-turning, witty and vastly entertaining.