The Ingenious Mr. Pyke

Starred review from March 16, 2015
Geoffrey Pyke, described in his 1948 Times of London obituary as “one of the most original if unrecognized figures of the present century,” always seemed to find himself in the right place at the right time, as Hemming (Abdulnasser Gharem) documents in this masterful biography. In July 1914, with Europe on the verge of war, Pyke talked his way into a position with Reuters as special correspondent in Copenhagen. He was soon captured by the Germans and sent to the Ruhleben concentration camp, from which he escaped, writing a bestselling book about the experience. That alone makes for a riveting read, but Pyke’s story was far from over. Hemming details how Pyke also made lasting innovations in educational theory, criticized Nazi anti-Semitism, aided the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War, convinced Winston Churchill that an aircraft carrier made out of reinforced ice was a good idea, and was suspected of being a Soviet spy. Hemming’s superlative text is nearly as nimble as Pyke’s mind, and he reveals who this remarkable innovator really was. B&w photos.

April 1, 2015
An unlikely tale of true espionage by London-based journalist/historian Hemming (Abdulnasser Gharem: Art of Survival, 2012, etc.) in which a nerdy Jewish kid becomes a kind of James Bond. Geoffrey Pyke (1893-1948) found his calling in the face of Nazi Germany's official anti-Semitism. He did not forget that as a British POW in Germany in World War I, though, he had been confined to a barracks reserved for Jews-and not by Germans but by his fellow British officers, masters of "the casual anti-Semitism of Edwardian England." Still, he remained a loyal servant of the empire, gathering valuable intelligence that would have earned him a firing squad as a spy. Convinced that the educational orthodoxy was misguided, Pyke also attempted to start a network of schools to be funded by his wizardry in the stock market. Convinced that it was not enough to defeat the Nazis but to "make fools of them in beating them," he gained the confidence of Winston Churchill and cooked up some elaborately improbable technologies, including "an unsinkable aircraft carrier made out of a cheap new material that could be produced quickly." Along the way, Pyke fell into the communist orbit. "I am primarily an anti-fascist," he insisted, but he would have been a candidate for execution by his own country had he not beaten his pursuers to the punch. Hemming examines the facts, augmented by "the release of previously classified documents by MI5," surrounding the Pyke affair, suggesting that while his subject, a tinkerer and discoverer, journalist, and genius indeed, had given material aid to the Soviets, he may not have been so deeply involved as was supposed. Pyke has been dead for nearly 70 years, so modest rehabilitation is of less interest than the fascinating story surrounding his deeds-for, as Time noted, killing himself "was the only unoriginal thing he had ever done." Fans of Graham Greene and Alan Furst will revel in this well-told true-life story.

April 1, 2015

Journalist Hemming's (Misadventures in the Middle East) breezy biography of Geoffrey Pyke (1893-1948) is well-researched, containing multiple notes, yet also written in a casual tone with pop culture references throughout. The author paints a colorful picture of tall, gaunt, atheist, Jewish, possibly-a-spy Pyke's turbulent and fascinatingly contradictory life. Pyke audaciously planned to enter Germany in 1914 to get the scoop as a war correspondent for the British newspaper Daily Chronicle. He successfully sneaked in, was imprisoned, escaped with a spy, and had a heart attack, but made it back to England and ultimately Cambridge. While Pyke did not graduate from college, this never hindered his copious writing and inventing; his creations caught the imagination of Winston Churchill and the British military (as well as MI5) and led to Pyke's involvement in intellectual circles such the Bloomsbury Group and George Bernard Shaw devotees, one of whom he married. VERDICT Those fond of biographies and 20th-century European war tales told in a modern vein will enjoy this book.--Sara R. Tompson, Jet Propulsion Laboratory Lib., Archives & Records Section, Pasadena, CA

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2015
Who was Mr. Pyke? He was an early twentieth-century thinker with ideas to spare: he smuggled himself into Germany as a journalist during WWI, escaped from prison and literally crawled to freedom in Holland, designed and ran an influential preschool, got England to refurbish junkers into ambulances for Spain during its civil war, and entranced Winston Churchill with the idea of a floating airfield made of ice. Of course, he was deemed a spy by nearly all sides. Files on him were thick but generally not acted upon, and as a result, Pyke kept on thinking and doing. Throughout his life, he believed that any problem could be solved if only viewed the right way. We can all think like geniuses . . . but only if we are prepared to look foolish now and again. Hemming's engaging, sometimes laugh-out-loud biography, with chapter titles denoting such Pyke schemes as How to Become Invisible and How to Win the War with Ice, may bring Pyke the renown he so rightly deserves. A rich recounting of a brilliant, idiosyncratic man.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)