Moon Boots And Dinner Suits
978-0241113370
Review note: A sister project, Nearly Sacred, a podcast just released an episode on Q and military intelligence. In a happy coincidence, this book review came in at almost the same time. –Booklight staff
John Pertwee, better known as the Third Doctor from the TV show Doctor Who, must have had his life setting set on legendary. Of course, since Pertwee is an actor, he might be acting having written this autobiography. Since he was also involved in military intelligence, it might also all be some part of an OP by Britain. Then, there is the possibility he is telling the unabashed truth, and it all sounds stranger than fiction. Probably, this analysis would delight him in any case.
The narrative format begins by discussing Pertwee’s early life and the decisions of his father who was working toward being a playwright. His mother and father split quickly, and Pertwee lives with his father with little to no knowledge about his mother. Later in the book, we understand why this is so. While living with his father, Pertwee moves through boarding schools and different estates–some of which are in France. He cuts his teeth watching World War I aces fly planes–sometimes to disastrous results. While in boarding school, he does not uphold the decorum expected of him as a student, and most often gets into trouble for playing pranks. He learns much about the opposite sex from an early age. This part of the book, in the current era, is unabashedly honest, but also would not be looked upon fondly. Indeed, Pertwee sounds much like James Bond if James Bond had a childhood. Of course, since Pertwee was hanging out with the writer of James Bond and worked in his later life in military intelligence for Britain, we begin to understand why this might be so.
After Pertwee narrowly escapes childhood, he starts a career in acting. This career has many memorable moments for him, but is interrupted by World War II. Pertwee joins the Navy. While in the Navy, Pertwee narrowly avoids getting blown up on the HMS Hood. It seems rather like destiny stepped in and pulled him away from the ship before its doomed encounter. Pertwee experiences this several times throughout the book. He has some premonitions and obeys them and discovers, for instance, that his idea to not leave a certain area during a pause in a bombing aerial raid results in his still being alive and not blown to bits.
There are many admissions of romantic conquests in the book. Pertwee was never short, it seems, on admirers or finding them. Certain low points are present in morale and character most apparently while in the Navy, as the reader might suspect. Pertwee is not usually the perpetrator in these tales, but one learns much about sexual attitudes throughout the book in England and the Navy in the early 20th century in particular. The premise to be understood is that it was “rough”.
Usually, one reads about Pertwee’s time in naval intelligence from an interview he gave two younger people in 1994 for a newspaper. However, the admission is present in the book, and Pertwee describes a kind of code that is used for communication during war time that is known within the military branches. Evidently, writing a letter to a loved one or mother and then using certain kinds of words was a way to encode information. This kind of coding has often been referred to as “Q code”. Therefore, it would seem Pertwee is indicating a familiarity with Q clearance. He speaks of several kinds of gadgets–like a pipe that shoots bullets or buttons that contain compasses–that he had to train others how to use. He was, in his early acting career, in plays with Winston Churchill’s daughter, and it is said that during his time in intelligence he spent time with Churchill and was directly answerable to him. Actors were perfect spies since they often moved around and people suspected them less since they were doing what their job required.
What this book does not discuss much is Pertwee’s time on Doctor Who. Indeed, there is another book that focuses on those years. Perhaps that will be a follow-up post here, at thebooklight! It is, nonetheless, an incredible account of the life and times of John Pertwee. How much of it is entertainment, or reality, or him acting is probably exactly why he was a spy. It’s hard to tell. Of course, to make up the material in here one would need to be a creative genius. Pertwee is clever, but some things are so strange that it can only be reality creating the narrative.