Volume: 5  Number: 1  Page: 17–27  doi:10.2167/jtcc073.0

Holidays with the Hun: The Male Tourist and His Murderous Itinerary

Alan Kirby

In this paper I explore the use made of touristic tropes by a sub-genre of British 20th century espionage/political adventure fiction. Writers such as Childers, Fleming and Forsyth are seen to have found their narratives on a deployment, or, more exactly, a détournement of many of the motifs of international tourism, such as long-haul commercial flights, stays in hotels, visits to sites of historical interest, and so on. They also set their stories in conventionally touristic locations (Venice, the Alps, the French Riviera, etc.) rather than places where Britain might plausibly be menaced by foreign agents. These holiday-making tropes underpin militaristic narratives privileging courage, discipline, training and murder, and often foregrounding horrors like torture, blackmail and violent death. They may function in these fictions as, for instance, a commercial ruse, as narrative pretext or portal, as grounding or glamorising or heroising effect, or as cover. Relating suggestively to Wang's (2000) discussion of the tourist's ‘existential authenticity’, the touristic appears in these texts in deturned form, mooted in the throes of its side-stepping, a lie, an instrument, a by-product, a mere gateway; yet, nevertheless, a curiously essential and inescapable one.

Keywords: James Bond, Ian Fleming, popular fiction, spy fiction

© 2007 A. Kirby

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