''The Lifeline'' (sometimes written as ''The Life-Line'') is a 1946

thriller novel Thriller is a genre of fiction, having numerous, often overlapping subgenres. Thrillers are characterized and defined by the moods they elicit, giving viewers heightened feelings of suspense, excitement, surprise, anticipation and anxiety. Su ...

by the British writer

Phyllis Bottome Phyllis Forbes Dennis ( ; 31 May 1884 – 22 August 1963) was a British novelist and short story writer. Life and career Bottome was born in 1882, in Rochester, Kent, the daughter of an American clergyman, Rev. William MacDonald Bottome, and a ...

. It has been suggested as a direct influence on

Ian Fleming Ian Lancaster Fleming (28 May 1908 – 12 August 1964) was a British writer who is best known for his postwar ''James Bond'' series of spy novels. Fleming came from a wealthy family connected to the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co., a ...

, who had once attended a school run by Bottome, and his later creation of the

James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...

stories. Equally the protagonist Mark Chalmers may have been partly based on Fleming himself. It was the only spy novel written by Bottome.Buckton p.262

Synopsis

Eton Eton most commonly refers to Eton College, a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. Eton may also refer to: Places *Eton, Berkshire, a town in Berkshire, England * Eton, Georgia, a town in the United States * Éton, a commune in the Meuse dep ...

schoolmaster heading off on his annual visit to the

Austrian Alps The Central Eastern Alps (german: Zentralalpen or Zentrale Ostalpen), also referred to as Austrian Central Alps (german: Österreichische Zentralalpen) or just Central Alps, comprise the main chain of the Eastern Alps in Austria and the adjacent ...

, which has recently been annexed by Germany agrees to a casual request from a

Foreign Office Foreign may refer to: Government * Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries * Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries ** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government ** Foreign office and foreign minister * Unit ...

friend to carry a message the country. Before long he finds himself embroiled in the anti-Nazi resistance and targeted by the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...

References

Bibliography

* Buckton, Oliver. ''The World Is Not Enough: A Biography of Ian Fleming''. Rowman & Littlefield, 2021. * Lassner, Phyllis. ''British Women Writers of World War II: Battlegrounds of their Own''. Springer, 1998. 1946 British novels Novels by Phyllis Bottome Novels set in Vienna Novels set in the 1930s Faber and Faber books British spy novels British thriller novels {{1940s-thriller-novel-stub