I would like to share a new addition to our Christmas Gift Guide 2021: Gifts for Women: Six Car Lengths Behind an Elephant: Undercover & Overwhelmed as a CIA Wife and Mother by Lillian McCloy Published by: Lillian McCloy.
I haven’t had the opportunity to read this book but I plan on popping Popcorn, grabbing my favorite Beverage, a Blanket and this book and crawling up on my bed Christmas Eve Night and reading this story from beginning to end because I want to know what a Spy does. Wouldn’t you want to know as well?
Quote from the Authors daughter:
I’ve got a great book to recommend for this feature. It’s a memoir titled Six Car Lengths Behind an Elephant: Undercover & Overwhelmed as a CIA Wife and Mother by Lillian McCloy. The book is available in paperback or ebook from Amazon, independent bookstores, or libraries . . . wherever books are sold. This book has been a favorite selection among book clubs, and is selling more copies with each successive year. It also averages 4.5 stars from reader ratings and reviews on Amazon (linked above.)
John le Carré describes this book as “a charming and unusual portrait of the secret life.” What makes it unusual is that it’s an honest and casually shared accounting of the absurd, funny, dramatic, entertaining, and often unbelievable aspects of what it is like to be a spy’s WIFE, and the mother of his kids, moving their family from Country to Country, while keeping the big secret.
This memoir is written as a series of personal anecdotes, as if she were sharing each of her experiences with a girlfriend over Cocktails. This is also what makes it an easy read; it’s a book you can pick up and resume at any time and not miss a beat.
I share all this with you as the Author’s daughter as well as the editor of this book, which is why I know so much about reader and reviewer response and its increased sales. I’ve also received direct messages from readers.
“A charming and unusual portrait of the secret life.” – JOHN LE CARRE´, author of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
“If you’re married to a Spy, the always fraught arena of a relationship turns into a positive minefield. What does that all-night absence mean? What can you begin to say to the kids? Lillian McCloy gives us the story of a life spent around Secret Intelligence that is funny and charming and in every wonderful sense, deeply spooky.” – PICO IYER, Author of Video Night in Kathmandu and The Art of Stillness
“Lillian McCloy reveals the intrigue, danger, and humor of clandestine life in her thoroughly entertaining account of a CIA family’s nomadic lifestyle. Few living in the U.S. will ever encounter the unique trials and tribulations of the McCloy family, but what a fascinating read it is!” – ALAN B. TRABUE, CIA (Ret.), author of A Life of Lies and Spies.
About Lillian McCloy
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About Lillian McCloy
“IT WAS ALTOGETHER A REALLY EXCITING EXPERIENCE.”
Author Lillian McCloy answers some reader questions in this 14-minute audio interview
FIVE THINGS READERS MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT LILLIAN’S LIFE PRIOR TO MEETING HER HUSBAND FRANK:
1) She was a professional singer with a big band and a four-piece jazz band in Winnipeg.
2) She was the seventh child in a second generation Icelandic family in Selkirk, Manitoba. Her parents spoke Icelandic at home.
3) Her father, Thorkell (Kelly) Sveinson, was a tinsmith and an inventor. He invented the Selkirk Chimney in 1941 and sold the patents a few years later. The Selkirk Chimney is now common throughout the U.S. and Canada.
4) She was Melvin Belli’s executive secretary in San Francisco when she met Frank in 1958. Belli was very demanding and she was the only secretary that lasted there. She was good at her job and enjoyed the challenges of working at that office.
5) Monty Hall was one of her serious boyfriends before Frank. (He went by his actual name Monte Halparin then). Monte was a deejay at a local radio station in Winnipeg when they dated.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT LILLIAN MCCLOY AND HER CIA MEMOIR:
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Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
