A Covert Affair

Bestselling author Jennet Conant brings us a stunning account of Julia and Paul ChildΓÇÖs experiences as members of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in the Far East during World War II and the tumultuous years when they were caught up in the McCarthy Red spy hunt in the 1950s and behaved with bravery and honor. It is the fascinating portrait of a group of idealistic men and women who were recruited by the citizen spy service,slapped into uniformand dispatched to wage political warfare in remote outposts in CeylonIndiaand China. The eagerinexperienced 6 foot 2 inch Julia springs to life in these pagesa gangly golf-playing California girl who had never been farther abroad than Tijuana. Single and thirty years old when she joined the staff of Colonel William DonovanJulia volunteered to be part of the OSSΓÇÖs ambitious mission to develop a secret intelligence network across Southeast Asia. Her first post took her to the mountaintop idyll of Kandythe headquarters of Admiral Lord Louis Mountbattenthe supreme commander of combined operations. Julia reveled in the glamour and intrigue of her overseas assignment and lifealtering romance with the much older and more sophisticated Paul Childwho took her on trips into the jungleintroduced her to the joys of curryand insisted on educating both her mind and palate. A painter drafted to build war roomsPaul was a colorfulcomplex personality. Conant uses extracts from his letters in which his sharp eye and droll wit capture the day-to-day confusionexcitementand improbability of being part of a cloak- and-dagger operation. When Julia and Paul were transferred to Kunminga rugged outpost at the foot of the Burma Roadthey witnessed the chaotic end of the war in China and the beginnings of the Communist revolution that would shake the world. A Covert Affair chronicles their friendship with a brilliant and eccentric array of OSS agentsincluding Jane Fostera wealthyfree-spirited artistand Elizabeth MacDonaldan adventurous young reporter. In Paris after the warJulia and Paul remained close to their intelligence colleagues as they struggled to start new livesonly to find themselves drawn into a far more terrifying spy drama. Relying on recently unclassified OSS and FBI documentsas well as previously unpublished letters and diariesConant vividly depicts a dangerous time in American historywhen those who served their country suddenly found themselves called to account for their unpopular opinions and personal relationships.