Mark Chalmers was, as far as he knew, exactly the kind of man he wanted to be. He earned enough money for his tasks; he had done nothing discreditable; women admired him; boys obeyed him; and men of his own age definitely disd him, unless they had been more successful still; and then they thought that he was a very nice fellow and might go far. But he would not go far because he was already thirty-six.
The kind of job Mark was on was not greatly to his taste; but his friend Reggie at the Foreign Office was urgent about it, and had offered to pay his holiday expenses if he would undertake it.

Do you remember a few weeks ago when I discussed Phyllis Bottome's Murder in the Bud - the hilariously ridiculous book the author that inspired Ian Fleming to start a career in writing? If you do, you may remember that I was looking to get my mitts on another book of hers - a book that Fleming is alleged to have copied from when he wrote his first James Bond novel - Casino Royale.

Well, The Lifeline is that very book.

When a trip to Edinburgh came up, I took the opportunity to seek out a copy at the National Library of Scotland and spend a few hours in the rather impressive reading room today to satisfy my curiosity about this book. It's totally geeky, I know, but it had to be done.

From here on there will be spoilers of both The Lifeline and Casino Royale - I'm not using spoiler tags. Be warned.

Edit: A friend pointed out this morning that the book is available online on www.archive.org here.


The Lifeline - What's the book about?

Bottome wrote The Lifeline in 1946, but the story is set in Austria, 1938. Austria had been annexed by Germany and the story starts with the introduction of Mark Chalmers, a Brit who loves Austria and who is feels a sense of loss at the political situation.

“Well yes,” Mark admitted a little warily, because emotion always made him feel wary, and he really felt the loss of Austria deeply. “I am bound to say I am attached to this country. This sudden occupation of Hitler’s is seeing a friend strangled by some ghastly thug! Yes, I do dis the Nazis very much – I think – I may as well say – that we as a people think this whole absurd set-up here, or in Italy, an atrocious nuisance.”

Mark promised a friend at the Foreign Office that he deliver a message to a contact in Nazi-occupied Austria. Unbeknown to Mark, this favour will set him off on his own adventure in as an intelligence officer.

While on holiday, Chalmers meets his contact in Austria and delivers the message. When he does, he learns about the precarious situation that his contacts friends are in and is persuaded to take some action. As a result Chalmers agrees to return to Austria under a false identity, that of a patient at a mental hospital and the brother of a famous artist.

The hospital is run by Dr. Ida Eichhorn, also a member of the underground, who enables Chalmers to come and leave the grounds as he requires to gather and pass on intelligence to his other contacts.

One of these contacts is Lisa, a young Austrian woman living on a farm, who starts to care for Chalmers. They literally steal horses together. Well, not steal but smuggle. They smuggle Lippizaners (think Spanish Riding School) out of the country to rescue them from being killed by the Nazis.

“The Third Reich thought that horses of such an unutilitarian character were an insult to the Intelligence of the New Man. The New Man, you see, is not to think and a horse that thinks might remind him of a former occupation of his own.”

(Note: I cannot find any sources that might support this claim as a fact, but would be curious to learn more. All I can find is that the horses were smuggled out at the end of the war for fear that they may be used for food by the advancing Russian army.)

One night, things go wrong. Chalmers is detected and tries to make a run for it. In the process, Lisa is killed by a raging bull named Franz Josef. - Yes, I know, but please bear with me, because this is not the most laugh out loud part of the book: there is also a twist involving a mad aristocrat who is kept at the hospital that puts a Bronte- twist on things and that was hilarious.

Chalmers is caught and tortured by the Gestapo. He is then transferred to a mental institution for detention - and it turns out that this is the same place that he used as a cover. Dr. Eichhorn and his friend Father Martin, a Jesuit priest, nurse him back to health - one focusing on his physical recovery, and one addressing his mental one.

Chalmers recovers, realises that he is in love with Dr. Ida Eichhorn (whom he previously didn't ), and both are married by Father Martin before Chalmers returns to England.

The End.


The Lifeline - How was it?

Honestly, I had very low expectations of this book after my experience with Murder in the Bud, but as I read through the first few chapters of the story, I changed my mind and started to really enjoy it.

For the purposes of this little project, I was not at first looking to read the complete story. I was looking to learn about Chalmers and in which ways he may or may not compare with James Bond. As it turns out, I had to keep reading to find out what happened to Chalmers and Ida and Father Martin. I cared, which, incidentally, is not something I have ever said about a Bond novel.

Where Murder in the Bud was lacking action and gushed forth with theories about psychology, The Lifeline was packed with action and only used reflection sparingly - but when Bottome did discuss a point, she cut straight to it. I d that.

For example, Chalmers is considering politics and how they affect personal integrity. Chalmers is a man who has been brought up with certain values such as that man must take action and that taking action is a sign of courage and honour. But in a post-WWI world this is not necessarily true. How far removed were courage and honour in a battlefield? And, if honour and courage derived from action alone, then surely an enemy is just as honorable and courageous as one's own side. And does the separation of "us and them" really exist?

So, when Chalmers states an old adage that “A man must keep his honour by his courage.”, he is quickly drawn into a more complex consideration by Father Martin:

“Something quite new is happening,” Father Martin said slowly, looking away from Martin, out of the dusty window, into the darkening summer air. “There used to be that way of keeping honour by courage. But courage has ceased now, to be by itself, a virtue. It has to be connected up with other qualities to-day!”

Bottome wrote this in 1946. She had the benefit of experience and hindsight. Bottome herself was connected to the secret service. Her husband was a section head in various locations in Europe, and yet, she chose to focus not on Chalmers as a hero of the story but on the collaboration between Chalmers and the other characters.

I am bringing this up because this is very different to what Fleming would do with Bond. It is also very different to what other authors, such as Alexander Wilson, would do - both authors would portray their secret service personnel as the unquestioned and, more importantly, unquestioning heroes, whose nationalism oozes off the page.

Not so Bottome, and I found this refreshing. A spy thriller, that is action-packed and sensitive to the complexities of international politics. I was impressed, and not even some of the silly plot elements - Chalmers' love interest being killed by a raging bull in a meadow! - could detract from that.


So, did Fleming copy from Bottome?

Some of the plot of Casino Royale closely follows that of The Lifeline. This cannot be denied. Both Chalmers and Bond go under-cover, both are tasked to work with a woman they don't at first fall in love with at the end.

“A cat”, she observed with a friendly grin, “may look at a king – nothing that the king does can prevent it – but is it worth the cat’s while to do it since it is no answer? That is left to the king! I read in your eyes “I despise you, my good woman”, but that I knew already. And I must assert that as long as I have not done anything for which to despise myself I can quite easily bear it.”

Mark’s armour still held. “I beg your pardon,” he said in his most dispassionate and distinguished manner, “but I am afraid that your extreme skill in understanding other human beings sometimes carries you off too far – or not far enough. I am not quite sure which – in either what we think of each other is rather beside the point.”

Both get captured, are tortured, rescued at the last minute, and are sent to a hospital to recuperate.

The last part is the most similar on both books - where Chalmers is nursed back to health by Ida and Father Martin, Bond experiences the same setup with Vesper Lynd and Rene Mathis. In fact, the first page of that particular chapter sounded a lot the text in Casino Royale.

“The days slipped past slowly into weeks before Mark realized that he was mending outwardly but not inwardly. His broken body had knit; his bruises had healed; physically he could be a man again; but his heart would not heal. Every day when Ida came he locked her out of it. He did not want her to find the hollowness within. It was easy to shut her out, for she demanded nothing from him.
[…]
He simply felt that he had nothing more to offer. The Gestapo had cleared him out. At the very core of his being there was nothing now but panic and emptiness. He was without courage, and without dignity”

However, while Fleming may have used some of the same plot elements, his characters and his whole outlook are entirely different. Having read both books now, I am a little sad that Fleming's books have endured for such a long time, while Bottome has been largely forgotten. Not just forgotten, but her books have been out of print for a long time, too.

The fact that I had to specifically seek out a copy of The Lifeline at a National Library, which involved quite a bit of effort, and that her books - especially this one - have not been reprinted - despite the connection with the cultural icon that is James Bond! - just makes me wonder which other gems we are missing out on.

I'll leave with this, which is the essence of Bottome's attitude, and which is something you'd never find in a stereotype-loving Bond novel:

“Evil is a individual as good,” Father Martin objected, “as long as there is a less bitter way can you not take it? It is a man’s choice that proves life good or evil.”reviewed19 s Jim Dooley849 47

During a one-week Road Scholar program called "The Art Of The English Murder Mystery," one day was dedicated to the spy novel. Our presenter was Nigel West, a writer and noted expert regarding the Intelligence community. Naturally, at one point, the conversation turned to James Bond and his creator, Ian Fleming (who West asserted was not a nice individual!).

Anyhow, for a time, a young Ian Fleming was an acquaintance of an American writer, Phyllis Bottome. She took him under her wing and taught him the fine art of writing short stories, while her husband (who was a British diplomat and an MI6 Head of Station) regaled him with spy stories. Nigel West stated that we really should read Bottome's book, THE LIFE LINE, if we could find a copy because her Intelligence agent, Mark Chalmers, was thought to be the template for James Bond. (If he was, Fleming wasn't very generous in acknowledging contributions, as screenwriter Kevin McClory would readily attest.)

Well, there are certainly similarities between Mark Chalmers and James Bond. Both were dark-complected, very attractive to female associates, loved the finer things in life, and were 36-years-old when the Reader meets them. Chalmers would work for a man using the initial B. Bond worked for M. West stated that "the real fellow" was identified as C ... for Chief.

There, the similarities mostly end. The most major difference is that Chalmers changes quite a bit over the course of THE LIFE LINE. Bond didn't change all that much over the series of novels and short stories written by Fleming.

However, Bottome has bigger fish to fry than to write a typical spy novel. Published in 1946, THE LIFE LINE is also a remarkably thorough and fascinating exploration of Nazism from the philosophical aspect to the impressions of the variety of people who Chalmers encounters on his mission. (As fears that Hitler's influence will spread outside of Germany and Austria, the British government places Chalmers inside Austria before the borders close so that he can report on Germany's plans and actions.)

There are a number of lethal encounters, especially as the Gestapo's reach grows. Be careful about finding a favorite character to enjoy as not everyone will survive. There is also a dark, hidden character who is as striking as any of the Fleming villains ... and completely unforgettable.

I am certain that there will be Readers who will not appreciate the frequently repeated moral tone. However, the writer wants people to understand how easy it is to become absorbed in a big Lie to the point that atrocities are ignored. At the same time, she warns about people who could exercise influence from outside, but who don't want to be involved because the events happening are so remote from their lives. Bottome warns that ignoring the impact of wrongs done to others may mean that they will one day arrive much closer to home.

Here is an example that really hit home for me about why some highly principled people outside of Germany embraced Nazism:

"They really believed and practiced the Nazi system, even when they skillfully evaded the most repulsive of its personal austerities.

"All day long the praises of Hitler sang in his ears. Other Leaders might make mistakes, but Hitler was above all blunders; and the system he had evolved was infallible.

"Besides, if there were not the Nazi system, there would be the Red Peril! A thousand times rather Hitler and all his rigors than the rising tide of the Common Man's Universe--with all its rights.

"No peril was too great to avoid Bolshevism. Every country which did not see this was acting as a short-sighted criminal, and a class renegade.

"All Jews, all Leftists, all insanely religious people, who took the wishy-washy ideas of religion found, by the Protestant-hearted, in the New Testament, seriously--must be stamped out."

Whew!

I especially appreciated how the writer's tale reminds the Reader not to paint all people in a group with the same brush. Chalmers encounters a number of Germans and Austrians who outwardly accept the dominating authority, but who are inwardly repelled by it.

Although I've read quite a bit through the years about the Second World War, THE LIFE LINE was a very different perspective with multiple revelations. And I'll admit that it is chilling to realize that it didn't disappear when World War II ended.

For those who are curious, Nigel West was asked which ones of the James Bond novels were an accurate reflection of what had gone on in the Intelligence community. He said that there was only one: FROM RUSSIA, WITH LOVE. Indeed, an early meeting that takes place in that book was very familiar to Fleming ... and a number of the names mentioned were actual participants!6 s Laura6,992 585

Excellent book on how Austrians faced the German invasion during World War II. Quite interesting how the author described the strategy to save the Spanish horses (The Lipizzaner horses) from being stolen/executed by the Nazis.

Another good author to be explored.british-literature e-books espionage ...more3 s ShanDizzy 1,157

The premise of this book is that an Eton teacher is made a reluctant spy while on holiday in Austria. He is asked to return to Austria and to report back what he sees the Germans doing towards the war. However, I feel this was less of a spy novel and more about a man who has a particular belief system, and code of conduct but begins to question these concepts as he encounters danger and meets different kinds of people who risk their lives to assist him. He learns much about himself, his emotions, and whether or not he can fit this knowledge in with the person he was before. It was an engrossing story with vivid imagery of people and places.

Father Martin said “… Beyond all expression, what they do is horrible. Such evil is still, for those in more fortunate lands, unimaginable. Yet even in days when there were no Nazis, such evil existed; and men would not believe it, because that they did not care to alter what was evil. It cost too much. What we now see - because the Nazis have so plainly shown it to us on a large scale - is the cause of this evil. Evil is made out of the refusal to love our neighbor as ourselves. You have looked at the naked face of it, for it is hate that Hitler has taught the whole of the German nation, and it is not surprising that you were shaken by it.”1 Paul43

the only other reviewer here, I sought this book out because years ago I read a conspiracy theory, of sorts, that Ian Fleming got the idea for James Bond from this book. Since it’s been out of print for decades I was able to finally find a copy on eBay.

First, about the book itself: it’s ok. There are genuinely thrilling parts filled with tension and suspense, but much of the book is a slog through overwrought descriptions of nature, or philosophical exercises as to what drives the Nazis. I get that this book was written at the very tail end of a very painful era in European history, which explains the emphasis on trying to understand the rationale behind such an atrocity. Unfortunately that dialogue just bogs down the story. There were also some very strange scenes thrown in haphazardly, including one with a werewolf (?!).

Regarding the Fleming connection — it’s definitely there. James Bond is a combination of the two main characters: Mark for his physical attributes, and Ida for her emotional detachment. There are scenes that are reminiscent of Casino Royale, specifically including when Mark is tortured, and then convalescences under Ida’s care. What’s interesting is that one of the secondary characters is almost an exact inspiration for Red Grant, the psychopathic killer who would be introduced much later in From Russia with Love. So Fleming definitely stored up a lot of source material for his own use. Rekha Rao968 47

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