Soldier, Spy: A Survivor’s Tale

Beginning in 1946, when Victor Gregg was demobbed after the end of the Second World War and deposited in London Paddington, Soldier, Spy is the story of a soldier returning to civilian life and all the challenges it entails.

Facing a new and ever-changing London a shifting political landscape and plenty of opportunities to make a few bob, repairing the bomb damage and doing construction work on the Festival of Britain site, Vic moves from one job and pastime to the next, becoming by turns cyclist, builder, decorator, trade union official, Communist Party member and long distance lorry driver. Finally he is offered ’a nice clean job’ as chauffeur to the chairman of the Moscow Narodny Bank where he will be able to come home to his wife and children every night. However, there is more to his new employers than meets the eye, and it is not long before his wartime work with the Long Range Desert group catches up with him in the form of an approach from the security services. Lured by the excitement his postwar life has lacked, Vic adds spy to his roster of employment, risking everything in the process.

Victor Gregg, born in London in 1919 served in the Rifle Brigade, notably at the Battle of Alamein, and then with the Parachute Regiment at the Battle of Arnhem. A prisoner of war, he survived the bombing of Dresden to be repatriated in 1946. He lives in Winchester. Rifleman, and the prequel, King’s Cross Kid, were co-written with Rick Stroud.

Writer and director, Rick Stroud, also wrote The Book of the Moon, The Phantom Army of Alamein and, most recently, Kidnap in Crete. He lives in London.