Smoke Screens Trivia Quiz

Answer: Graham Greene

James Wormold makes his living by selling vacuum cleaners in Havana, Cuba but struggles to earn enough to maintain his daughter's extravagant lifestyle. To make extra cash, he agrees to work as a spy for the British government. The issue he has with this is that he is not very good at it, and when he cannot generate the information that he needs, he starts to make it up. This works well until the false information he's providing, starts to come true. This is black comedy and you cannot help but laugh when the British Secret Service start to analyse drawings of a supposed Communist base hidden in the mountains, which are nothing more than sketches of vacuum cleaner parts.

This question was written under the cover of darkness by Phoenix Rising agent pollucci19.

Answer: The Little Drummer Girl

Charlie is an English actress recruited by Mossad to entrap a Palestinian terrorist. Unfortunately, she becomes emotionally involved with the people she is spying on, and her focus becomes blurred. She ends up having a breakdown. The book was made into a movie in 1984 in which le Carré himself had a part, playing Commander David Cornwell.

"The Honourable Schoolboy", and "Smiley's People" were part of the Karla Trilogy. "Single and Single" is a thriller about a Customs officer on the trail of a swindler.

This question was sneaked in by Phoenix Rising member VegemiteKid.

Answer: Agent 21

After Zak Darke's parents are killed in a mass murder, he is recruited by the government and becomes "Agent 21". He is sent undercover to complete missions and these missions often involve infiltrating terrorist camps. "Agent 21" belongs to a series of spy novels aimed at young adults. The author, Chris Ryan, is a former Special Air Service sergeant.

This question was written under the covers by Phoenix Rising team member purelyqing.

Answer: No

"The IPCRESS File" (1962) is Deighton's first spy novel which sees the author's protagonist involved in an attempt to rescue a prominent scientist from the hands of the Russians. This in turn leads the discovery of a double agent, brainwashing and details of a US atomic weapons test. Our protagonist, in turn, finds himself on the run, also accused of being a double agent.

Our protagonist, however, is not named. Deighton deliberately chose to keep his spy anonymous and managed to maintain this façade through further novels in the series though, in the later stories there are occasions where he is called "Charles". To bring this to film would have produced obvious difficulties and so the name "Harry Palmer" was conjured by the writers.

This question was reported to you by anonymous Phoenix Rising team member pollucci19.

Answer: Alistair MacLean

Carpenter convinced the US Navy to transport him under the ice in their latest nuclear-powered sub to save the remaining people at the Ice Station, after a disastrous fire had killed several men. He discovers that the fire was no accident and that two of the scientists are actually Russian agents. The stakes are now high because the base was in possession of overhead surveillance photographs of every US missile base. In the denouement, all is revealed and the bad guys' plan is thwarted. The novel was released in 1963 and is a bit dated now, but is still a ripping yarn.

Deighton and le Carre were both authors of spy stories, but Wodehouse specialised in hilarious satirical novels, especially those featuring upper-class toff, Bertie Wooster, and his faithful butler, Jeeves.

Answer: Richard Hannay

Appearing as a major character in five novels during Buchan's lifetime, Hannay becomes so decorated that he is eventually referred to as Major-General Sir Richard Hannay, KCB, OBE, DSO, Legion of Honour. Born in Scotland, he becomes fluent in German, thanks to his father's business associates, before moving to South Africa where he becomes an engineer, makes a fortune in copper, serves in the Imperial Light Horse and becomes involved in both the Matabele and Boer wars. Hannay arrives in England in 1914, just before the breakout of World War I and stumbles onto a German plot to steal British war secrets. The latter forms part of the plot to "The Thirty Nine Steps" (1915).

This question was methodically paced out by Phoenix Rising team member pollucci19.

Answer: Ashenden

"Ashenden: Or the British Agent" is a collection of stories by William Somerset Maugham and is partly based on his experiences as a British Intelligence agent in World War I. In the stories, the writer, known only as Ashenden, is recruited by British Intelligence and is sent to Switzerland to run a spy ring. He becomes disillusioned with espionage after witnessing the wretched fate of many spies and realising how much of a farce his missions really are.

"Ashenden" was one of the first realistic spy novels and paved the way for other authors like John le Carre and Graham Greene in the espionage genre. Although his stories were considered realistic, Somerset Maugham himself revealed that most of the material obtained as an intelligence agent was useless for literature and it was up to the author to give it coherence, drama and probability.

This question was clandestinely directed by Phoenix Rising team member purelyqing.

Answer: Casino Royale

"Casino Royale" was only a short novel but it was enough to spark reader's imaginations. Bond is sent to bankrupt SMERSH's paymaster, Le Chiffre, via a high stakes baccarat game and, along the way, we learn of his penchant for fast cars, smoking and alcohol and, that he can fall in love. We also discover that "something cold and ruthless" lurked beneath those rugged good looks, a fact that is generally overlooked in the films.

The words in this question were expertly shuffled by Phoenix Rising team member pollucci19.

Answer: Robert Ludlum

Fishermen pull Jason Bourne's body out of the sea, riddled with bullets, and they nurse him back to health. Bourne's only problem is that he has no idea who the heck he is. His mission now is to find out who he is while keeping the CIA at arm's length and staying out of the sights of a merciless assassin. Along the way he finds out that he possesses extraordinary martial arts skills, has acute powers of observation and a knack for languages, he's a pretty good shot and he has an amazing ability to stay alive. He also discovers that his "other" missions included killing people and destabilising governments.

Robert Ludlum was an American author who specialized in writing espionage thrillers. Twenty seven of these, including the Bourne trilogy, were published between 1971 and 2006, the last one some five years after his passing. His "Bourne" series is made up of "The Bourne Identity" (1980), "The Bourne Supremacy" (1986) and the "The Bourne Ultimatum" (1990). After his death in 2001, the series was continued by US author Eric Van Lustbader.

This covert question was skillfully designed by a Phoenix Rising Director of Operations only known as 1nn1.

Answer: True

John le Carré, born David John Moore Cornwell (19 October 1931), was a British Secret Service agent who had to use a pseudonym when writing novels. Le Carré had retired from an intelligence career to write novels full time when his cover was blown by the traitor Kim Philby.
His third novel, "The Spy who Came in From the Cold", gave the world one of his finest creations, the spy with a defeatist attitude, Alec Leamas. The, in a series of outstanding novels, came the more famous character, George Smiley. Smiley was introduced, in part, as an antidote to Ian Fleming's James Bond who, le Carré thought, should be excluded from espionage fiction as he was too much of a caricature for the genre.

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