SERENDIPITY, LUCK, AND THE BEGINNING OF A NOVEL

On 21st May 2019, I was lucky to secure an interview with PST, the Norwegian Police Security Service. Established in 1937, it was already active at the time INVASION begins. Responsible for monitoring and maintaining internal security in Norway, It was known then as Politiets Overvåkingssentral or Police Surveillance Centre, and it features in the novel.

On the day of Germany’s invasion of Norway, the secretary of the Head of the Police Surveillance Centre managed to load the whole archive of the service on board a truck and she drove it out of Oslo as the Germans marched in. The archives were then hidden at a farm a few hours’ drive north of the city. Later that spring, the secretary went back to the farm and burnt everything.

Forty years later, a long-serving member of the security service gathered some of his colleagues together and asked them to trawl their memories so he could write a history of events prior to the war. I was able to secure a copy of that report, perhaps the only Englishman ever to read it. It enabled me to bring to life in INVASION the competing spy rings as they sought to unmask and eliminate their competitors.

To learn more about this incredible historical event be sure to get your copy of the novel INVASION.