Warlight

In the novel’s Acknowledgements, Ondaatje shares several resources that informed his historical depiction of civilian espionage. Rose Williams’s role as a signals intelligence agent is based on the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) in Bletchley Park. The estate operated as a center for codebreaking from 1939 to 1946, and mathematician Alan Turing was a notable team member. In the novel, the children learn that The Moth and Rose worked as “firewatchers” on the roof of the Grosvenor House Hotel, a role Nathaniel later realizes involved intercepting coded German signals and broadcasting secret transmissions to Allied forces from the rooftop. At the archives, Nathaniel further learns that Rose sent the German signals to Bletchley Park for decoding. As a child, he saw his mother enter the Wormwood Scrubs prison, not knowing until he was an adult that the site was the secret headquarters for the Radio Security Service, an MI5 network during the war.

The character of Rose may be inspired by renowned wireless operator Yvonne Cormeau, a secret agent for the Special Operations Executive (SOE) under the code name Annette. Like Rose, Cormeau once parachuted into a foreign country for her work and was a mother who placed her child in the care of a convent during her years as an operative. Rose’s nickname for Rachel, “Wren,” is also based on the history of female codebreakers. Approximately 7,500 women (75% of the team) worked at the GC&CS. Most of them were members of the Women’s Royal Navy Service, also known as the Wrens.

The activities of Norman Marshall, or The Darter, are also based on historical events. Waltham Abbey Royal Gunpowder Mills manufactured explosives used in both world wars. After World War II, the site became the Explosives Research and Development Establishment. In the novel, Nathaniel joins The Darter on clandestine trips to and from Waltham Abbey under the pretense of smuggling counterfeit china to the black market. At the archives, Nathaniel learns that The Darter had secretly transported nitroglycerine for the government both during and after the war. Near the end of the novel, Nathaniel imagines that Agnes, a former lover who joined them on those trips, ended up working at the research facility packing explosives on an assembly line.

Like Rose and The Darter, the eccentric cast of characters that come in and out of Nathaniel’s home in Ruvigny Gardens are inspired by real-life civilian spies. Marsh Felon, Rose’s mentor and recruiter, shares a similar background to spymaster Maxwell Knight, a naturalist who hosted a BBC radio program. Olive Lawrence, one of The Darter’s dates, is partly based on the meteorologists who charted the weather in preparation for D-Day. Though only mentioned briefly, the character of the couturier Citronella alludes to fashion designer Hardy Amies who was also an agent for the SOE. The Moth’s work at the Criterion Banquet Halls alludes to the hub of espionage activities in London’s grand hotels. Ondaatje populates the novel with these eccentric and shadowy characters to acknowledge the heroism of civilians who led secret lives as spies and intelligence operatives both during and after the war. Although Nathaniel uncovers fragments of these people’s lives, the novel also employs the archetype of the spy to evoke the unknowability of the past and the futile longing to grasp the truth.