The Books of U.N.C.L.E.

I have a habit of getting things when the opportunity arises. I have a great many interests, sometimes they connect to one another, and I had a habit of haunting second-hand shops to see what there is to see. Quite simply, this is why the Archive is as big as it is.

Much of the Archive is in a temporary status, not in it's proper home. It's in a staging area, set aside as the item in question has yet to be read or watched or what have you. Sometimes opportunity and interest do not connect at the same time. Some items happen to be on sale at the right time, or a hard-to-find book will pop up, or I'll stack up issues of a magazine for a year or so knowing that they'll get read over the course of a week at some point.

Some years ago I picked up about a dozen books in 'The Man from U.N.C.L.E.' line. They're not novelizations of episodes from the TV show, like my Doctor Who books are, these are just other stories featuring the characters from the show. When I saw them on the shelf at the second-hand store I knew that some of the later books in the run were rare, I had enjoyed the earlier books I'd gotten from the run, and they were priced at the princely sum of a dollar apiece. I bought all that I needed and have a nearly complete run thanks to that day. They came home and have sat on the 'read me' bookshelf since, waiting for their chance to be read and be moved to the shelf with their previously read brethren.

I started reading through them a week or two ago. They are fun. Some paragraphs have made me read them twice as I would have sworn I wrote them. Perhaps they are another influence on my style. A couple have been particularly entertaining.

90% of one book was set in Wisconsin. The details were enough to make me giggle on occasions; different but enough the same to know they were often right even 40 some years after the writing of it.

The one I'm working through now is set in England and the author is having fun with unnamed guest stars. One character was clearly meant to be Fu Manchu. I think another was the Saint. James Bond is referred to in a 'I hope we don't meet him on this trip' sort of way. There were a couple sets of people I didn't recognize as of yet and may have to look around to see who they were meant to be. Neddie Seagoon, Harry Secombe's character from the Goon Show, is named as working at New Scotland Yard.

The best so far is William Escott, an old man, long retired, who lives in Sussex and raises bees. Once he was a detective and has been amazing Napoleon and Illya with his abilities. He speaks of having dismantled a proto-THRUSH back in his working days.

I think the chap may have changed his name. Sounds a bit familiar, hmm?