Transcription, by Kate Atkinson

Knocked down by a car in 1981, Juliet Armstrong flashes back to her post-war life at the BBC in 1950 and her wartime experiences with MI5 in 1940. A seemingly naïve 18-year-old secretary, Juliet learns to lie and deceive with the best of them while transcribing recordings of fifth columnist meetings of Nazi sympathisers. It is only in 1950 that she finds out the extent of the manipulations and machinations that continue to haunt her and will affect the rest of her life. It seems that once involved with the security services there is no exit. There are spies within spies and secrets within secrets, all gradually uncovered as Juliet loses her innocence on many fronts. Her career consists of long stretches of mundanity punctuated by brief spells of extreme action and the book follows suit, with extended passages of dull transcription, which call into question the point of it all. In the end all is revealed but one question remains – was it really an accident?