The Lifeline

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The Lifeline
First edition
AuthorPhyllis Bottome
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
GenreThriller
PublisherFaber and Faber
Publication date
1946
Media typePrint

The Lifeline (sometimes written as The Life-Line) is a 1946 thriller novel by the British writer Phyllis Bottome.[1] It has been suggested as a direct influence on Ian Fleming, who had once attended a school run by Bottome, and his later creation of the James Bond stories. Equally the protagonist Mark Chalmers may have been partly based on Fleming himself.[2] It was the only spy novel written by Bottome.[3]

Synopsis[edit]

An Eton schoolmaster heading off on his annual visit to the Austrian Alps, which has recently been annexed by Germany agrees to a casual request from a Foreign Office friend to carry a message to the country. Before long he finds himself embroiled in the anti-Nazi resistance and targeted by the Gestapo.

References[edit]

  1. ^ Lasnner p.230
  2. ^ Buckton p.261-262
  3. ^ Buckton p.262

Bibliography[edit]

  • Buckton, Oliver. The World Is Not Enough: A Biography of Ian Fleming. Rowman & Littlefield, 2021.
  • Lassner, Phyllis. British Women Writers of World War II: Battlegrounds of their Own. Springer, 1998.