I often wear different hats at different times (so to speak) and one of the hats I occasionally wear in recent years is that of spy fiction enthusiast.
Last year, I wrote a blog post about Quiller, the super-spy creation of Adam Hall, and some poetry echoes I thought I'd found in his novels. You can read it here: https://thestoneandthestar.blogspot.com/2018/08/adam-halls-quiller-meets-poems-in-my.html
More recently, I appeared on the excellent Spybrary podcast in a two-episode discussion about Quiller, with longtime Quiller fans and spy fiction experts Jeff Quest and Tim Stevens. You can listen to Spybrary on good podcast apps, and also find these episodes here:
https://spybrary.com/quiller/
https://spybrary.com/the-books-movie-and-tv-series-of-quiller-by-adam-hall-round-table-part-2-86/
In the second episode, I spoke a little bit about the literary echoes I thought I'd found in the Quiller novels. More than that, though - I went full-on spy poetry nerd and read an original poem I had written, inspired by Quiller. For those of you who wanted to see it on the page, or who are not sure they want to listen to me talk about spies for two hours, here it is. (Although I do recommend you check out the podcast. And read the books, of course.)
Q
after Adam Hall's 'Quiller'
Obsessed into being
sideways break
Open the dawn
Divided
the order of man
Don't lose the measure of man
Velocity's invitation
bitten to the quick
Reverse the earth
Still beating
little attack heart
Light up the shadow
Poem © Clarissa Aykroyd, 2019
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