‘Gabriel’s Moon’ by William Boyd

When pressed I will admit that William Boyd is probably my favourite living writer of fiction and, for this reason he is one of the authors who are ‘on the ration’ for me. I want to delay gratification and only read his work sparingly. One or two novels a year at most.

He writes in different genres. Like most of his fans I find his signature ‘whole life novels’, of which there are half a dozen, particularly enjoyable. These are large sprawling affairs which take a protagonist over decades from birth until death. But of course these require a vast amount of research, so in between William Boyd writes shorter books, often light thrillers generally involving middle-class, educated Englishmen getting tied up in extraordinary situations outside their comfort zones. Last year I read ‘Ordinary Thunderstorms’ which was very much that kind of book – and really good.

This summer, because I am about to go to an author event with William Boyd at which he will be talking about the third in his series of Gabriel Dax spy thrillers, I decided to read the first two. This is the book in which he first introduces this hapless travel writer who somewhat unwittingly finds himself working for the intelligence services. The plot is a touch outlandish, but full of complexities and twists to keep the pages turning, and as always with William Boyd, it is thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish. Exciting and also funny.

Gabriel Dax is I think best characterised as an antidote to James Bond. He operates at the same time (the 1960s) and in the same kind of milieu, but is anything but a glamorous figure. He is a reluctant spy, at first recruited by his older brother to perform minor tasks, but who gradually gets further sucked into this strange secret world. Gabriel likes the money that doing jobs for MI6 provides and enjoys the opportunities the work gives him to go on journeys that he can also write about. He also starts to develop a romantic interest in his handler, one Faith Green. And of course, once you start spying, as the book continually reminds us, it is difficult to find a way out even if you want one. Exit doors are hard in practice to open.

This book takes Gabriel to the Congo, to Cadiz (twice) and to Warsaw. He never knows exactly why he is doing the things he is being asked to do, but being a curious fellow nonetheless tries to work it all out. He bumbles along endearingly, while also consuming a vast quantity of alcohol:

He went to the bar, ordered a bottle of red wine and started to drink as he thought things through. Of course, he reasoned, obviously Sefton had proposed him initially as a perfect courier for Faith. That was the beginning. It had to be. My brother does these little jobs for me. Perfect cover, travel writer. Why lie, though? Why deny it? There must be some other motive, he realized. He had always known there was a grander plan, a bigger picture, but he could never figure it out, wondering if Caldwell’s imminent defection had scuppered everything.

He topped up his glass, thinking, steady, boy, steady – he was out of here tomorrow, back to London, he didn’t want to drive with a hangover. the thoughts came and went, jostling with each other. Was Sefton part of the Institute? Or was he representing MI6 or the Foreign Office at the potential, massively embarrassing crisis? A head of station, thirty years in the secret service, defecting to the Soviet Union .Was it all about Caldwell in the end? But what were the drawings for? Why was he sent on this particular errand, and paid so well? What would happen to Caldwell when he was arrested? Would they hush everything up? And where, he wondered, did the death of Patrice Lumumba fit in?

And so we go along with the ride as he looks to solve these puzzles. En route there are moments of high drama, some sex, a few violent deaths, plenty of mishaps, defections across the iron curtain, plenty of other reminders about Cold War shenanigans and a splendid ongoing metaphoric saga involving trying to catch a mouse. Then there is a secondary mystery relating to Gabriel’s rather darker early life which he is also trying to solve, and does with the help of an amateur psychotherapist.

As so often with William Boyd, the fictional adventures are threaded through with real history. The story begins in the newly independent Congo in 1960, where Gabriel unexpectedly gets to interview its doomed prime minister, Patrice Lumumba. Lumumba tells him that there are people who want him dead and names names. When he is subsequently murdered, the recording Gabriel has brought back to London suddenly becomes rather more interesting than he had anticipated. Boyd is particularly good at this sort of thing, namely placing an invented, slightly bewildered individual at the edge of great historical events and allowing us to experience them through him.

There is another nice element of reality behind all this. William Boyd has said that one of his inspirations for Gabriel was the great travel writer Norman Lewis, who really did undertake occasional work for British intelligence. And you can immediately see the attraction. What better cover could a spy have than being a travel writer? He has a perfectly good reason for turning up in obscure foreign cities, talking to people and asking impertinent questions.

It is all great fun. There are more profound William Boyd novels. ‘Gabriel's Moon’ certainly isn't another ‘Any Human Heart’ or 'New Confessions' but that isn't what it is trying to be. It is an intelligent, funny, atmospheric entertainment by a writer who is incapable of telling a story badly. Gabriel Dax is excellent company too. He is curious, flawed, frequently baffled and just competent enough to survive the situations into which other people keep manoeuvring him.

I am now reading the second novel in this series, ‘The Predicament’ which starts shortly after the action in this one concludes.