In Conversation: World War II Espionage And How it Influenced Cold War Spy Novelists Including Ian Fleming, John Le Carré, and Helen MacInnes.

Professor of English Oliver Buckton joins Dean Michael Horswell in our latest edition of In Conversation to discuss his research on World War II espionage and his new book Counterfeit Spies: How World War II Intelligence Operations Shaped Cold War Spy Fiction (2024).

Oliver Buckton is Professor and Chair of the Department of English at Florida Atlantic University, and has taught at FAU since 1994. He teaches courses in Victorian and modern British literature, film, literary theory, and espionage fiction. His recent research explores the intersections of intelligence history, political history, and espionage fiction. 

He is the author of Secret Selves: Confession and Same-Sex Desire in Victorian Autobiography (1998), Cruising with Robert Louis Stevenson: Travel, Narrative, and the Colonial Body (2007), Espionage in British Literature and Film Since 1900: The Changing Enemy (2015), The Many Facets of Diamonds Are Forever: James Bond on Page and Screen (2019) and The World is Not Enough: A Biography of Ian Fleming (2021) and