The Man With Two Shadows by Robin Maugham

This split-personality novel is a literary blend of espionage and suspense. Before writing novels, Maugham was an intelligence operative in the Middle East and like his main character, experienced blackouts resulting from a head injury.

British Army officer Peter Grant suffered a severe head wound and was invalided out to the Hospital for Head Injuries. Now, in 1946, he returns to Morocco as a freelance journalist at the request of Chief Liaison Officer General Maddern. An Arabic speaker, Peter has the perfect cover for an 'unofficial observer'. In the back of his mind are concerns about recurring memory lapses since his injury, repeating to calm himself "It's all over, and I am well again."

He recalls in childhood, wanting to be like the boys' adventure heroes with names like Tommy, instances of blackouts even then. Working with a network of men, they notice no difference when the curtain falls over his mind—perhaps he acts overconfident, but not drunk. Hesitant to reveal his condition and be sent home, more often he awakens without memory with strangers who call him Tommy. He forms a trust with a fellow agent who has infiltrated a network smuggling Communists to the wrong side of the Iron Curtain, until the shutter falls over Peter's mind and the man is killed. The dissociation turns despair into madness as he becomes aware Tommy has taken over—to such an extent he becomes the narrator, and we see the events from a new perspective.

His bouts of 'retrogressive amnesia' feel appropriately disjointed, and there is a dangerous undercurrent throughout. A British agent and a Communist conflicting within the same mind is unique, but Maugham himself was 'unashamedly homosexual', and also present is the duality of secretive relationships. This descent into darkness has resonance, and I wish it were easier to find or available in a digital format. A complex gem I enjoyed.

Robin Cecil Romer Maugham, the 2nd Viscount Maugham and nephew of literary great W. Somerset Maugham, was a barrister and successful author. His novella The Servant (1948) became the classic 1963 Dirk Bogarde film. Actor Sal Mineo was unsuccessful in filming Maugham's gay psychological thriller The Wrong People (published under the pseudonym David Griffin in 1967). Too controversial at the time, a 2026 film is now in production.

1958 / Paperback / 128 pages