Chapter Two is mostly about…

For five summers, a cliff-top idyll at Woods Hole, at the south-western corner of Cape Cod, MA, was where young Whitney spent his summers, grappling with the currents ripping through the Elizabeth Islands as he learned to sail in Buzzards Bay.

Read more

Peter Janson-Smith: a centenary celebration

Peter Janson-Smith, the man Ian Fleming called the ‘prince of agents’, was born 100 years ago today. This appreciation is based on an interview I conducted with him in the run-up to his 90th birthday celebrations.

Read more

Chapter One is mostly about…

His parents met in Washington, fell in love in Beijing and married in Geneva, and his father survived the Great War but died in Paris, just three weeks after the Armistice, from Spanish Flu. Yet most of Chapter One plays out in New York State…

Read more