The Human Factor

Maurice Castle, a quiet officer in a British intelligence Africa section, lives in the suburbs with his Black South African wife Sarah and her son, and handles cables about a leak. When a colleague is suspected and then removed, Castle must protect the source of information he has been passing, a choice bound up with the debt he believes he owes for Sarah's escape from apartheid South Africa. Officials in London, a security man, and a Soviet contact close the circle around a suburban marriage. The book is a novel of office espionage and loyalty, not a thriller of gadgets and not a history of the Cold War.

12 B&W illustrations. Grey cloth binding with a blocked design in black and orange by Bill Bragg. Orange endpapers. Black slipcase.