FEATURED AUTHOR: DEBORAH SWIFT

I am pleased to host Deborah Swift again as the featured author in The Coffee Pot Book Club Blog Tour being held between February 13th — March 5th, 2024. Deborah Swift is the author of the Historical Fiction / WW2, The Shadow Network (Secret Agent Series ), newly released by HQ Digital on 13th February 2024 (376 pages)

Below are highlights of The Shadow Network, Deborah Swift's author bio, and her fascinating post about how fake news was broadcast in World War II to undermine the German people's trust in their leaders.

 

Tour Schedule Page: https://thecoffeepotbookclub.blogspot.com/2023/12/blog-tour-the-shadow-network-by-deborah-swift.html

HIGHLIGHTS: THE SHADOW NETWORK

 

The Shadow Network

(Secret Agent Series)

by Deborah Swift

Blurb:

One woman must sacrifice everything to uncover the truth in this enthralling historical novel, inspired by the true World War Two campaign Radio Aspidistra…

England, 1942: Having fled Germany after her father was captured by the Nazis, Lilli Bergen is desperate to do something pro-active for the Allies. So when she’s approached by the Political Warfare Executive, Lilli jumps at the chance. She’s recruited as a singer for a radio station broadcasting propaganda to German soldiers – a shadow network.

But Lilli’s world is flipped upside down when her ex-boyfriend, Bren Murphy, appears at her workplace; the very man she thinks betrayed her father to the Nazis. Lilli always thought Bren was a Nazi sympathiser – so what is he doing in England supposedly working against the Germans?

Lilli knows Bren is up to something, and must put aside a blossoming new relationship in order to discover the truth. Can Lilli expose him, before it’s too late?

Set in the fascinating world of wartime radio, don’t miss The Shadow Network, a heart-stopping novel of betrayal, treachery, and courage against the odds.

Buy Links:

Universal Buy Link: mybook.to/RadioLies

Link to bookshop: https://harpercollins.co.uk/products/the-shadow-network-ww2-secret-agent-series-deborah-swift/?variant=40268383617102

AUTHOR BIO: DEBORAH SWIFT

 

Deborah Swift is the English author of eighteen historical novels, including Millennium Award winner Past Encounters, and The Lady’s Slipper, shortlisted for the Impress Prize.

Her most recent books are the Renaissance trilogy based around the life of the poisoner Giulia Tofana, The Poison Keeper and its sequels, one of which won the Coffee Pot Book Club Gold Medal. Recently she has completed a secret agent series set in WW2, the first in the series being The Silk Code.

Deborah used to work as a set and costume designer for theatre and TV and enjoys the research aspect of creating historical fiction, something she loved doing as a scenographer. She likes to write about extraordinary characters set against the background of real historical events. Deborah lives in North Lancashire on the edge of the Lake District, an area made famous by the Romantic Poets such as Wordsworth and Coleridge.

Author Links:

Twitter https://twitter.com/swiftstory

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authordeborahswift/

Website: www.deborahswift.com

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/deborahswift1/

Amazon  http://author.to/DeborahSwift

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/deborah-swift

Bluesky Handle: @deborahswift.bsky.social

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND: FAKE NEWS IN WW2

 

The Shadow Network Tour

Fake News in WW2

by Deborah Swift

 

‘We must never lie by accident.’

Sefton Delmer about the fake WW2 radio station Soldatensender Calais

Whilst researching the Political Warfare Executive in WW2, I became fascinated by a wartime propaganda outfit that was used to fool the German population into thinking that their leaders cared little for them, but only for enriching themselves and their own situation. The idea of manipulating the public through ‘fake news’ had many resonances for today, and so I went down a fascinating rabbit hole to research it.

The secret radio stations operating in WW2 pretended to be genuine German radio stations and employed German prisoners of war or other German speakers to make their broadcasts. The broadcasts were deliberately racy and were designed to capture the hearts of ordinary Germans and make them believe they were listening to a forbidden radio station from their own country. Their popularity spread, and they got wide audiences for their programmes.

In wartime Britain there were three branches of propaganda, known then as ‘white’, ‘grey’, or ‘black,’ though we probably wouldn’t call them that today. White propaganda came from a known source and was completely transparent. Grey propaganda, on the other hand, was the subtle promotion or amplification of a political opinion by broadcasters self-proclaiming themselves as ‘objective’ or as neutral.

However, with black propaganda the audiences were oblivious to the fact they were being manipulated and did not feel that they were being pushed in a certain direction. This was because black propaganda pretended to come from a source that was not the true source – in The Shadow Network my characters work for a black propaganda radio station.

The first such station, Gustav Siegfried Eins (GS1), featured a fake Nazi extremist called ‘Der Chef’, played by an actor, who accused Adolf Hitler and the Gestapo of going soft. It undermined the German soldiers’ trust in their leaders by reporting on their (alleged) corruption and sexual improprieties.

The two stations mentioned in my novel The Shadow Network are the British radio station Soldatensender Calais, supposedly a radio station for the Wehrmacht based in France, and Atlantiksender, a shortwave radio station for German submariners. Both were coming from Bedfordshire in the England, under the direction of Tom Sefton Delmer, a British journalist who had resided in Germany and spoke perfect German. Delmer created several stations and used gossip from prisoners of war, or from intercepted German mail, to create credible stories. He had a team of people collecting suitable material from newspapers and from bugging the captured officers’ camps.

Soldatensender Calais broadcasted a combination of popular music, supposed support of the war, and "dirt" – news that would create dissent in the German forces, such as speculation that German soldiers' wives were having affairs with the many foreign workers in German factories.

There were British black propaganda radio stations broadcasting in most of the languages of occupied Europe, and many of these were based in the area of Woburn Abbey in Bedfordshire. The broadcasts were transmitted using an ex RCA transmitter mast from the USA, which was more powerful than any other, and which was bought for £165,000. 

Finding out all this stuff led me on an interesting journey through many research books, and also to a network of Radio buffs and amateur radio enthusiasts who were able to point me in the right direction. The National Archive holds material on Sefton Delmer, as does the Sefton Delmer archive.

For further reading, I can recommend this website: https://writersandpropaganda.webspace.durham.ac.uk/tag/sefton-delmer/ and Sefton Delmer’s own book Black Boomerang published in 1962.

BUY THE SHADOW NETWORK mybook.to/RadioLies

‘Brilliant! Loved this novel about the input made by the Political Warfare Executive to WW2. The characters seemed so real and true.’ — NetGalley Reviewer

‘A gripping tale of wartime subterfuge, spies, saboteurs and black propaganda.’— NetGalley Reviewer

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