The English Problem

Another Country (1984)

"You do not know about the English problem and what a hell each return to this dying country means." - Peter Watson in a letter dated March 1947

For a brief moment in my late teenage years, I wanted to be a spy. I considered myself a solitary, isolated person who would be up to the task. I even embarked on some intensive Russian courses in preparation for applying for a degree in English and Russian at Oxford or Edinburgh, where I would no doubt get the infamous ‘tap on the shoulder’.

There were just two problems with this plan.