Intelligence
'Wonderfully feisty and beguiling' WILLIAM BOYD
Published on 5. March 2026
Book
Hardback
288 pages
978-1-80522-661-1 (ISBN)
Description
'Joyful, sad, smart and surprising' NICK HORNBY, bestselling author of High Fidelity and About a Boy
Was he about to recruit her into the secret service? She held her breath. Frogwoman, codebreaker, assassin, saboteur - whatever it was, she'd do it!
Oxford, 1938. Ida and Medora are two brilliant young philosophers at the heart of a group who gather in storied rooms to dance, drink and debate theories of right and wrong.
But as the world spins towards war, theoretical questions of life and death become all too real. While her friends are called up to do intelligence work, Ida, the irrepressible Texan outsider, seeks academic distraction. Then she stumbles across secret Nazi information that could radically change the direction of the war. Can she and Medora capture the attention of the spymasters and mandarins in London in time to save thousands of lives?
Seductive, witty and page-turning, Intelligence is the unputdownable new novel from one of the UK's best-loved writers and comedians.
Was he about to recruit her into the secret service? She held her breath. Frogwoman, codebreaker, assassin, saboteur - whatever it was, she'd do it!
Oxford, 1938. Ida and Medora are two brilliant young philosophers at the heart of a group who gather in storied rooms to dance, drink and debate theories of right and wrong.
But as the world spins towards war, theoretical questions of life and death become all too real. While her friends are called up to do intelligence work, Ida, the irrepressible Texan outsider, seeks academic distraction. Then she stumbles across secret Nazi information that could radically change the direction of the war. Can she and Medora capture the attention of the spymasters and mandarins in London in time to save thousands of lives?
Seductive, witty and page-turning, Intelligence is the unputdownable new novel from one of the UK's best-loved writers and comedians.
Reviews / Votes
Intelligence is twisty, captivating, with a plot that really keeps the reader guessing -- LISSA EVANS, author of Crooked Heart and Small Bomb at Dimperley Written with great brio and aplomb -- WILLIAM BOYD, bestselling author of Gabriel's Moon Full of derring-do with wonderful cameo appearances of the great and the good -- NICK HORNBY, bestselling author of About a Boy A deep, spirited journey through wartime intelligence that brings to vivid life the extraordinary characters who shaped those times. Moving, thought-provoking, sparkling with wit and wisdom, its themes resonate long after the book is closed -- JANICE HALLETT, bestselling author of The AppealMore details
Edition
Main
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Profile Books Ltd
Product notice
Trade binding
Dimensions
Height: 221 mm
Width: 139 mm
Thickness: 29 mm
Weight
394 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-80522-661-1 (9781805226611)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
03/2026
Serpent's Tail
€18.49
Available for download
Person
Robert Newman is an award-winning author, comedian and broadcaster. Intelligence is his seventh book. He has written and starred in many TV and radio shows, including Robert Newman's Total Eclipse of Descartes, History of Oil and No Planet B - or the History of the World Backwards, and has performed sold-out stand-up shows all over the world.