The Confidential Agent

The Confidential Agent (1939) is a thriller novel by British author Graham Greene. Fuelled by Benzedrine, Greene wrote it in six weeks. To avoid distraction, he rented a room in Bloomsbury from a landlady who lived in a flat below him. He used that apartment in the novel (it is where D. hides for a day) and had an affair with the landlady's daughter. He wrote the book for money and was so displeased with his work that he wanted it published under a pseudonym. But critics took a far different view; The New York Times, for example, called the novel "a magnificent tour-de-force".