Double Agent Celery
MI5's Crooked Hero
Published on 6. November 2017
Book
Paperback/Softback
271 pages
978-1-5267-1614-9 (ISBN)
Description
With Britain braced for a German invasion, MI5 recruited an ex RNAS officer, come confidence trickster, called Walter Dicketts as a double agent. Codenamed Celery, Dicketts was sent to Lisbon with the seemingly impossible mission of persuading the Germans he was a traitor and then extract crucial secrets. Once there, the Nazis spirited him off to Germany. With his life on the line, Dicketts had to outwit his interrogators in Hamburg and Berlin before returning to Britain as, in the Nazis eyes, a German spy. Despite discovering he had been betrayed as an MI5 plant before he even left for Germany, Celery somehow got back to Lisbon. After that he persuaded an Abwehr Officer to defect, and spent nine months undercover in Brazil. A mixture of hero and crook, Dicketts was worldly and intelligent, charming and charismatic. Sometimes rich and sometimes poor, his private life was a web of complexity and deception. Using family and official records, police records, newspaper articles and memories, the author unravels the tangled yet true story of Double Agent Celery.
Reviews / Votes
A fascinating journey into the past to uncover one of the most colourful rogues who spied for Britain. Michael Smith, bestselling author The Anatomy of a Traitor and The Secrets of Station X.; A classic recipe of wartime espionage with romance, perfidy and tragedy as added ingredients. Nigel West, bestselling author. Voted The Experts' Expert by a panel of other spy writers in The Observer in November 1989. ; The wartime double agent is one of the most indelible figures in all of literature. But there are few characters as bizarre and intriguing as the rascal who was codenamed Celery by MI5. In telling the story of her grandfather's adventures, Carolinda Witt has added a rollicking chapter to our understanding of World War II. And here's the incredible part: It's all true. Peter Duffy, bestselling author Double Agent and The Bielski Brothers.; As gripping and immersive as any spy novel. This tells the real story of agent Celery. Dr Helen Fry, author and historian The M Room: Secret Listeners who Bugged the Nazis and Spymaster The Secret Life of Kendrick; Powerful feel for the period and a sure touch generally on the techniques of spycraft. Without the Double Cross system Britain would probably have lost the Second World War. Professor Paul Moorcraft, former UK Ministry of Defence and prolific author on security issues.More details
Language
English
Place of publication
South Yorkshire
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Pen & Sword Books Ltd
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Illustrations
16 pages of b&w plates
Dimensions
Height: 239 mm
Width: 163 mm
Thickness: 33 mm
Weight
635 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-5267-1614-9 (9781526716149)
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
01/2020
Pen & Sword Military
€7.48
Available for download
Person
Carolinda Witt is the granddaughter of MI5 s double agent celery aka Walter Dicketts. After growing up in Africa, she has sailed around the Caribbean, skied throughout the Alps, scuba-dived in the Pacific and, at the age of twenty-one, became one of the first female hot-air balloon pilots in Britain. In 1988 she flew the Virgin Jumbo Jet shaped balloon across Australia in the Trans-Australia balloon race. Following being co-owner of a successful medical supplies company, Carolinda developed a modern version of the popular anti-aging yoga routine known as The Five Tibetan Rites now practised by thousands of people all over the world. She is the author of the bestselling T5T: The Five Tibetan Exercise Rites and The 10-Minute Rejuvenation Plan. She lives in Sydney, Australia.