Everything that wed once taken for granted now seems open to question.

Even what
appears to be happening in front of your eyes, you realise when you think about it, turns
out to be something you cant actually quite see after all, to involve all kinds of
assumptions and interpretations (pp. 4142)
Spies is a novel written by British author and playwright, Michael Frayn. Frayn has
published ten novels and thirteen plays, and lives in London. This novel won the
prestigious Whitbread Novel of the Year (2002). Frayn was born in 1933 and worked for
the Guardian and Observer newspapers as a journalist.
View the video where Michael Frayn discusses his book Spies at the Guardian Book
Club here.
Plot Synopsis
Stephen Wheatley, an old man, goes back to the road he used to live in as a child during
World War II. The narrator weaves in and out looking at the events of his childhood both
as the child he was, and the adult he now is.
Stephens childhood friend, Keith Hayward, reads an entry in his mothers diary and so
he and Stephen set off on an adventure to see whether or not she was a German spy by
becoming secret spies themselves.
Set against a backdrop of mystery and intrigue, the boys wonder whether there is a
German infiltrator in their midst, and could Mrs. Hayward be a spy? As Mr. Hayward
becomes suspicious of his wifes activities, he begins to try and stop her. This leads Mrs.
Hayward to ask her son to bring food and medicine to the underground hideout, causing
confusion, until finally the police are called with tragic circumstances. In the end, Stephen
Wheatley realises the truth is very different to what he had once believed and he is left
struggling to work out his own identity.
Both boys did not realize their childhood spying game would fundamentally change the
lives of several people, including themselves.
Context Overview
It is often said that novelists plunder their history for material, scattering peoples
emotions and stories as they write. Michael Frayns Spies appears to follow this trajectory.
The narrator, like Frayn, was a young boy during the Second World War, when the story
moves to the present day. The novel moves from these superficial and obvious parallels
and engages in a telling and perceptive discourse on memory and truth.
Prompted by the smell of plants reminiscent of his youth, the narrator returns to the street
he grew up in during the war. He re-sorts his memories and tries to remember not only
what changed and shaped him, but the exact events that engineered this change. These
include recollections of his relationship with his friend Keith and Keiths family. Spies also
examines the narrators changing relationship with, and understanding of, his father, from
a distant and apparently timid man into someone with honour and greater heart than the
narrators professed role models.
The story focuses on spies and spying. Keiths mother is proclaimed as a spy by Keith
himself. This sets in motion the discovery of another suspected German spy. This man is
eventually unmasked as Uncle Peter, the husband of Keiths Aunt Dee, a man on the run
from the Air Force and the horrors of war. While engaged in an act of espionage the
narrative also shows the unpleasant nature of those the narrator is surrounded by, his
initial entranced friendship of Keith and his family, which eventually turns to disgust.
There are numerous links with the Context Whose Reality? These include how people cast
a different light on events from their past, in turn showing how peoples perception of
events change over time. Spies also shows how pre-existing ideas cloud our understanding
of the world. The allure of certain realities or worlds is looked at through Keith and the
narrators make-believe world. This pretend world may have dangers, but these are not as
fraught with anxieties and problems as the real world. More importantly the novel shows
how people are able to hold two separate worlds in their heads, even though they may be
in direct conflict with each other.
The psychogeography of the world we live in is also questioned. There are layers of history
under the environment we live in, layers that can be seen if we choose to look hard
enough. The novel is also useful in showing how writers manipulate readers through the
narrator, making them by turns reliable and unreliable. This unreliability is used to
undermine the world the reader has entered into, which in turn makes the reader question
his/her own understanding of the world.
Changes in our perception of reality over time
How people see the world changes over time. How we perceive events will alter depending
on age and our ability to reflect on what has happened. People rarely look back on events
and interpret them how we experienced them. The narrator does this repeatedly in the
novel, presenting the reader with his youthful interpretations and perception of the world.
While he never explicitly says he saw the world incorrectly, there is a gradual change in his
attitude and the way he confronts the world.
This suggests that to grow and mature it is vital to be able to change how we see the
world. The narrator does this several times, referring to on the one hand the liberating
aspect of this change Im emerging from the old dark world of tunnels and terrorsand
remote blue horizons open all around (p.167) to, on the other hand, the frightening
aspect of it, Im leaving behind the old tunnels and terrors of childhood and stepping
into a new world of even darker tunnels and more elusive terrors (p.180).
As we grow, we are also able to make moral and ethical decisions about the world we
enter. The narrator in Spies gradually does this, in effect seeing much later than other
characters that the world of Keith and Keiths father isnt the idyllic one he imagines. He
removes himself from this world and re-enters the world of his own family, one that
appears more caring and loving than he first recounts. After being assaulted by Keith he
recalls coming home bleeding and his father tends to his wound He fills the basin, then
washes the wound with a tenderness that I cant remember in him before (p. 213).
Unreliable narrators
Unreliable narrators are a common fictional device. These are narrators the reader is
unable to fully trust, not necessarily because theyre lying, but because they are unable to
understand the world they are living in. The narrators recollection of his youth is
unreliable. Keith is not the intelligent and dashing friend the narrator imagines him to be.
This is remarked upon by several other characters who comment on Keiths unpleasant
nature. This isnt inserted to show how the narrator cant be trusted, rather it is an
indication that people will often choose to believe a reality or perception long after its
obviously untrue.
The narrators reliance on and loyalty to Keith is not because of Keiths friendship, but it is
to do with the narrators own uncertainty of the world. The world he creates with Keith is
one of certainties. This is a stability that many people are attracted to and understand. The
allure of this alternate world is strong because it is familiar and safe.
The importance of language and words in shaping our reality
One way people define their reality is through the names they are given. The text shows
this through the narrators insistence on referring to his young self in the third person as
Stephen. This has two effects, the first is to show that he is no longer Stephen, but has
reverted to his original name Stefan Weitzler. The second thing it does is distance the
narrator from these actions, in effect placing the world of his memories in a totally
different space from the present of the narrative. People will often do this to separate
themselves from difficult or unpleasant memories, in effect taking themselves out of the
world they once lived in.
The importance of names to competing worlds is reinforced when he refers to his friends
Keiths family through their relation to Keith, Keiths father Aunt Dee. This is to show
how he saw them in his world. The solidity of his world is undermined when the adults
occasionally refer to each other by their actual names, Ted or Mrs Hayward. This
reinforces the world he is leaving, and the fact that people live in a number of different
worlds or realities. The world further removed from their actual name seems to be the one
with the least resonance or importance.
The words people use can determine reality. This is shown when Keith writes Privet
instead of Private. Not only is it a cue that Keith may not be as intelligent as Stephen saw
him, but it is also used to show the multiple meanings of words, in this case both the
hedge and a then vulgar word for toilet. These multiple definitions reinforce the different
concurrent realities people live in. When it is finally corrected by Keith later to Private it is
a signal to the reader that Keith has exited the childish world they used to play in and is
now closer to an adult, and by proxy, a less forgiving, world.
Multiple realities
Realities sit upon each other, intersecting at infrequent and vital moments. The book
shows these intersections in time and place. The world of childhood and adulthood meet at
numerous points, most notably when Barbara Berrill enters the boys hiding place
Strangers are coming into our special placeand Ive no control over it. (p.164). This
indicates how people construct realities and worlds that may coexist next to each other,
but for many are not meant to intersect. When they do it often leads to confusion and
distress.
More importantly when the narrator is asked to hand over the basket by Keiths father he
perceives It comes to me that he finds this conversation as difficult as I do, and for a
moment I glimpse a more general and more surprising truth that adults are not after all
members of some completely different species from myself (p.188) This shows that when
these world do intersect they often highlight the similarities, rather than the differences
between people.
The narrators insistence that the man hiding is a German despite the evidence to the
contrary indicates that difficulty in crossing the world we create. Even the narrator in the
present of the story reveals the identity of the German as Uncle Peter, broken by his
involvement in the war. This is used to show the importance of the narratives we build in
our head. It is also used to show how difficult it is to see the reality, or truth of matters.
We are sometimes unable to see the truth of situations.
This inability to truly see things as they are isnt limited to the children of the narrative.
The dashing image of Uncle Peter in the photo is undermined by the dishevelled reality.
This disconnect is used to show how people will often prefer the dashing illusion of heroism
over the unpleasant reality of not only the sick Peter, but his moral destruction at the
hands of the war.
Identity is also examined by the abrupt revelation in the last chapter that the narrator
himself was German, the spy in the street was not Keiths mother or the German, but
himself. There are hints throughout the text, with his fathers kuddelmuddel and
schnickschnack. What these show is how we can deny the world we are living in, but also
that despite our best efforts we are unable to truly deny them. For the narrator in the
present it is important that he discovers the truth of the world he inhabited, not his
childhods version of the truth. This is extended to his German heritage. For the narrator
the reality that is the most important is truth.
The reality of place
Place often determines our reality. This is explored in two ways in the novel. The first is
through the narrators understanding as a boy that the world of the Close was merely
sitting on top of other worlds. The most vibrant of these was the depressed world of the
Lanes and the Cottages. These worlds are contrasted to show not only the multiple visions
of the truth, but the fact that peoples vision of place is not necessarily solid or real. The
fact the narrators world is built on a number of different and older pre-existing worlds
reinforces the sense of unreality of the world of the Close.
The second connection with the physical world is the narrators exploration of the world in
the present of the narrative. Acknowledging that you cant go back, everyone knows that.
(p.4) More importantly, that his vision of the world he grew up in is linked to his past.
Going back to the street of his youth reinforces not only how much the world has changed,
but also how much his vision of the world has changed. For him, the reality of the street is
linked to time, not necessarily place.

Close Analysis Task
This task shows you how to identify and discuss key Context ideas in selected passages
from Spies. Read the following passages and analyse what each passage shows about the
Context. Write in depth and illustrate your answers with key quotations from the passages.
Section 2: From page 9 to the end of the second paragraph page 13.
Section 5: From Its not Keith though.. on page 96 to a low fever on page 99.
Section 6: From page 120 to page 122.
Section 10: From page 199 to the paragraph break on p.205.

Focus Questions
Childhood fantasy versus adult reality
What does the statement, Things start as a game, and then they turn into a test,
which I fail (p.48) tell us about Stephens reality?
Are the states of childhood and adulthood always totally separate realities?
Memory and imagination redefine reality
Stephen implies that his adult life has involved some dislocation. To what extent
do you think the experiences described in the novel have shaped him as an adult?
How important are childhood memories?
Constructed reality
How real is Stephen and Keiths friendship?
How much do we ever know about our parents reality?
Conflict between illusion and truth
How does Frayn challenge the wartime values of loyalty and unity that Stephen, as
a child, takes for granted?
Does the older Stephen have a different view?
Representing and misrepresenting reality
In column 1, make a list of the ways Stephen and Keith misrepresent other people
and events. In column 2 list the reality; in column 3, list the possible reasons for
this misrepresentation.
Why is there such a difference between what Stephen knows and what
he thinks he knows?
Drawing on Spies , write a summary of the reasons people misrepresent reality.
We see Keiths actions through Stephens eyes. Scan the novel carefully and find
evidence to support your response to the following questions:
(a) Was Stephen as dominated by Keith as he suggests he was? What reasons
may he have for misrepresenting Keiths power over him?
(b) Is it possible that Stephen is also good at concealing his true nature? Find
evide nce from the novel to support your response.
(c) Why does Stephen admire Keith for having a German spy in his family (p. 53).
Different places representing different realities
Stephen describes how his dull, familiar world is transformed on a dark night (p.
113). How does darkness change the way he sees the world in Chapter 6?
The man in hiding gives Stephen a message for Mrs Wheatley on the remains of a
silk map which included German placenames (p. 206). According to Stephen, how
have geographical and political changes in Europe changed the way the words and
images on the silk map may be interpreted today (p. 226)?
Place often determines our reality. How is this explored in the novel?
Consider your own neighbourhood or a place you know well land identify several
different places in your neighbourhood where different realities seem to exist side
by side. Describe how the places differ from each other.
How and why perceptions of reality change
How does the way Barbara renames the boys activities change the way Stephen
interprets reality?
Think of other examples where changing the way something is named changes the
way we see it.
Why does Stephen use the ship as a metaphor for the storytelling process?
Scan the novel and identify as many turning points as you can in Stephens
understanding of what is happening. Why do these turning points occur?
The relationship between memory and reality
Stephen says he is trying to establish some order in it all, some sense of the
connections (p.6). Examine the key events in Stephens stories, explaining the
connections he makes between them.
Why do you think Stephen is unable to develop an accurate account of what
happened?
In Spies the narrator shifts from narrating as a child and as an adult. Is this
confusing? What are the differences?
Extend your thinking
How valuable are our memories? Does our ability to remember enhance or
compromise our sense of reality?
What influences how we remember the past, especially our childhood?
Why do we remember only a fraction of our childhood?
How important is the truth? If the consequences of revealing a truth involve pain
and humiliation, are we better off not knowing? Is there any such thing as an
absolute truth, or will truth always be shaded by societal values and cultural
expectations? How much does truth shift according to context?
How do we construct our understanding of families other than our own? Are we
more forgiving of other families? Are we more judgemental of our own families,
and why?
How do we cope when our reality is undermined by evidence contrary to our
previous understanding?
How easy is it for us to see the world in a different manner?
Do you understand the need to keep revisiting the past, as an adult? What might
be the reason(s)?

Focus on the text's stylistic features
As well as drawing on ideas from Spies in your writing about Whose Reality? remember
that the language and style of your writing may also be inspired by the structures and
features of the text. For example, the following aspects of Spies may influence how you
choose to use language in the texts you create.
Multiple narrators
Stephen as a child
Stephen as an old man looking back
Third person flawed narrator
Mystery/Genre/Spy
The reader is involved in spying and finding the spy, as well as solving a mystery
Humour
due to the innocence of the children and sarcasm
use of military time
mundane observations: The sun comes out. The sun goes in
naivet regarding adult life diary markings
Descriptions
Add significance to the experiences going on in the novel.
Especially the night of the full moon when Stephen leaves the house to venture into the
tunnel on his own: Never in my life before have I crept out of the house in the middle of
the night. Never before have I experienced this great stillness or this strange new freedom
to go anywhere and do anything.
Metaphors
Tunnel representing the path to adulthood; also sexuality
Change and growth
Tone
Reflective as we see the workings of Stephen's mind and inner conflicts as the truth is
revealed slowly
Symbolism and imagery
Privet bush
Bayonet (Knife)
Cigarettes
Photograph in the silver frame
Mrs. Hayward's neck scarves in Summer
Lamorna
What do these symbols represent in the novel?