A Covert Affair: Julia Child and Paul Child in the OSS by Jennet Conant

US $12.00
ApproximatelyS$ 15.46
Condition:
Like New
Breathe easy. Returns accepted.
Shipping:
Free USPS Media MailTM.
Located in: South Lyon, Michigan, United States
Delivery:
Estimated between Tue, 7 Oct and Tue, 14 Oct to 94104
Delivery time is estimated using our proprietary method which is based on the buyer's proximity to the item location, the shipping service selected, the seller's shipping history, and other factors. Delivery times may vary, especially during peak periods.
Returns:
30 days return. Buyer pays for return shipping. If you use an eBay shipping label, it will be deducted from your refund amount.
Coverage:
Read item description or contact seller for details. See all detailsSee all details on coverage
(Not eligible for eBay purchase protection programmes)
Seller assumes all responsibility for this listing.
eBay item number:123960941344
Last updated on Oct 02, 2025 04:16:31 SGTView all revisionsView all revisions

Item specifics

Condition
Like New: A book in excellent condition. Cover is shiny and undamaged, and the dust jacket is ...
ISBN
9781439163528
Category

About this product

Product Identifiers

Publisher
Simon & Schuster
ISBN-10
1439163529
ISBN-13
9781439163528
eBay Product ID (ePID)
109005792

Product Key Features

Book Title
Covert Affair : Julia Child and Paul Child in the Oss
Number of Pages
416 Pages
Language
English
Publication Year
2011
Topic
Military / World War II, United States / 20th Century, Political Ideologies / Communism, Post-Communism & Socialism, Intelligence & Espionage, Culinary, Modern / 20th Century, General, Political
Illustrator
Yes
Genre
Political Science, Biography & Autobiography, History
Author
Jennet Conant
Format
Hardcover

Dimensions

Item Height
1.4 in
Item Weight
26.7 Oz
Item Length
9.2 in
Item Width
6.1 in

Additional Product Features

Intended Audience
Trade
LCCN
2011-002875
Reviews
"What more could you want from a book? Here is a discussion of propaganda and covert actions written with text-book clarity. Salacious gossip about the upper circles of Washington's political and media community. A writing style that has one racing from page to page, eager to soak in more details. I thump my desk with glee over Jennet Conant's The Irregulars .... A truly fascinating book." --Joseph C. Goulden, The Washington Times, "Exhaustively researched and vividly written.... Conant vividly captures the personalities."             --Boston Globe, "Exhaustively researched and vividly written.... Conant vividly captures the personalities." --Boston Globe, Praise for A Covert Affair "Jennet Conant's A Covert Affair is an absolutely top-class work of the true-spy genre; elegantly written, authentic, exceptionally sophisticated, and not at all what you might expect of a book with a picture of Julia Child on the cover. This ain't about cooking." --Alan Furst, author of Spies of the Balkans, Praise for Tuxedo Park   "Remarkable and remarkably told, as if F. Scott Fitzgerald had penned Batman ."              --Kirkus (starred review), Praise for Tuxedo Park eoeRemarkable and remarkably told, as if F. Scott Fitzgerald had penned Batman .e --Kirkus (starred review), Praise for The Irregulars "What critics praise most in Jennet Conant's The Irregulars is the quality that is becoming the author's signature knack: her ability to show how a seemingly obscure group of characters personifies the mood of a time and place and exercises more influence than one might expect&. Expert writing and research. " --Booklist, Praise for Tuxedo Park "Remarkable and remarkably told, as if F. Scott Fitzgerald had penned Batman ." --Kirkus (starred review), "What more could you want from a book? Here is a discussion of propaganda and covert actions written with text-book clarity. Salacious gossip about the upper circles of Washington's political and media community. A writing style that has one racing from page to page, eager to soak in more details. I thump my desk with glee over Jennet Conant's The Irregulars .... A truly fascinating book."             --Joseph C. Goulden, The Washington Times, Praise for The Irregulars   "What critics praise most in Jennet Conant's The Irregulars is the quality that is becoming the author's signature knack: her ability to show how a seemingly obscure group of characters personifies the mood of a time and place and exercises more influence than one might expect.... Expert writing and research. "                         --Booklist, "Conant's vivid tapestry of the 1940s skillfully interweaves interviews, oral histories, memoirs, and recently unclassified OSS and FBI documents with unpublished diaries and letters. The adventurous young OSS recruits spring to life throughout this meticulously researched, authoritative history." -- Publishers Weekly, Praise for The Irregulars eoeWhat critics praise most in Jennet Conante(tm)s The Irregulars is the quality that is becoming the authore(tm)s signature knack: her ability to show how a seemingly obscure group of characters personifies the mood of a time and place and exercises more influence than one might expecte. Expert writing and research. e --Booklist, "Conant's vivid tapestry of the 1940s skillfully interweaves interviews, oral histories, memoirs, and recently unclassified OSS and FBI documents with unpublished diaries and letters. The adventurous young OSS recruits spring to life throughout this meticulously researched, authoritative history."     -- Publishers Weekly, "Conant has written a book full of fascinating material about wartime and postwar America and how they intersected....Conant doesn't disappoint in her picture of the whirlwind life of the OSS, created very much in the image of its founder, the maverick William J. Donovan. Her glimpses of how he overcame bureaucratic rivalries and turf wars are as exciting as her picture of life in the field, complete with dengue fever, cobras and scorpions." - Los Angeles Times, "It is a wallop of a story, people engaging in the sorts of international dangers that is the stuff of the movies… all jungles and cities and intrigue and risk, with an exquisite attention to detail that illuminates the OSS and its players." - Portland Oregonian, "The value of Conant's anecdotal approach is... in its depiction of ordinary relationships in extraordinary circumstances--of the way friendships, feuds and romances develop in strange and secretive settings." - The New York Times Book Review, Praise for A Covert Affair "Jennet Conant's A Covert Affair  is an absolutely top-class work of the true-spy genre; elegantly written, authentic, exceptionally sophisticated, and not at all what you might expect of a book with a picture of Julia Child on the cover. This ain't about cooking."             --Alan Furst, author of Spies of the Balkans, eoeA thoroughly engrossing story, one Conant tells exceptionally well.e --Publishers Weekly (starred review), "A thoroughly engrossing story, one Conant tells exceptionally well." --Publishers Weekly (starred review), eoeAs was true of her excellent first book, Tuxedo Park, in The Irregulars [Conant] removes the dust of history. e Entertaining and instructive.e --Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post, "It is a wallop of a story, people engaging in the sorts of international dangers that is the stuff of the movies& all jungles and cities and intrigue and risk, with an exquisite attention to detail that illuminates the OSS and its players." - Portland Oregonian, "What more could you want from a book? Here is a discussion of propaganda and covert actions written with text-book clarity. Salacious gossip about the upper circles of Washington's political and media community. A writing style that has one racing from page to page, eager to soak in more details. I thump my desk with glee over Jennet Conant's The Irregulars &. A truly fascinating book." --Joseph C. Goulden, The Washington Times, eoeExhaustively researched and vividly writtene. Conant vividly captures the personalities.e --Boston Globe, "A thoroughly engrossing story, one Conant tells exceptionally well."   --Publishers Weekly (starred review), Praise for A Covert Affair eoeJennet Conante(tm)s A Covert Affair is an absolutely top-class work of the true-spy genre; elegantly written, authentic, exceptionally sophisticated, and not at all what you might expect of a book with a picture of Julia Child on the cover. This aine(tm)t about cooking.e --Alan Furst, author of Spies of the Balkans, "A Covert Affair is a skillfully told tale of espionage, combining just enough background information with the right amount of boisterous anecdote to make the reader feel simultaneously amused and informed." -Salon.com, "A brilliantly researched and written account& a well-researched and well-written account of this period in American history&.Conant, a terrific writer, conducted voluminous research and crafted a fascinating story that reads as though she was actually there." - The Seattle Times, "As was true of her excellent first book, Tuxedo Park, in The Irregulars [Conant] removes the dust of history. ... Entertaining and instructive." --Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post, "As was true of her excellent first book, Tuxedo Park, in The Irregulars [Conant] removes the dust of history. ... Entertaining and instructive."             --Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post, "Exhaustively researched and vividly written&. Conant vividly captures the personalities." --Boston Globe, "A brilliantly researched and written account… a well-researched and well-written account of this period in American history….Conant, a terrific writer, conducted voluminous research and crafted a fascinating story that reads as though she was actually there." - The Seattle Times, Praise for The Irregulars "What critics praise most in Jennet Conant's The Irregulars is the quality that is becoming the author's signature knack: her ability to show how a seemingly obscure group of characters personifies the mood of a time and place and exercises more influence than one might expect.... Expert writing and research. " --Booklist, "As was true of her excellent first book, Tuxedo Park, in The Irregulars [Conant] removes the dust of history. & Entertaining and instructive." --Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post, eoeWhat more could you want from a book? Here is a discussion of propaganda and covert actions written with text-book clarity. Salacious gossip about the upper circles of Washingtone(tm)s political and media community. A writing style that has one racing from page to page, eager to soak in more details. I thump my desk with glee over Jennet Conante(tm)s The Irregulars e. A truly fascinating book.e --Joseph C. Goulden, The Washington Times
Dewey Edition
22
TitleLeading
A
Dewey Decimal
940.54/85092273
Synopsis
Bestselling author Jennet Conant brings us a stunning account of Julia and Paul Child's experiences as members of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in the Far East during World War II and the tumultuous years when they were caught up in the McCarthy Red spy hunt in the 1950s and behaved with bravery and honor. It is the fascinating portrait of a group of idealistic men and women who were recruited by the citizen spy service, slapped into uniform, and dispatched to wage political warfare in remote outposts in Ceylon, India, and China. The eager, inexperienced 6 foot 2 inch Julia springs to life in these pages, a gangly golf-playing California girl who had never been farther abroad than Tijuana. Single and thirty years old when she joined the staff of Colonel William Donovan, Julia volunteered to be part of the OSS's ambitious mission to develop a secret intelligence network across Southeast Asia. Her first post took her to the mountaintop idyll of Kandy, the headquarters of Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten, the supreme commander of combined operations. Julia reveled in the glamour and intrigue of her overseas assignment and lifealtering romance with the much older and more sophisticated Paul Child, who took her on trips into the jungle, introduced her to the joys of curry, and insisted on educating both her mind and palate. A painter drafted to build war rooms, Paul was a colorful, complex personality. Conant uses extracts from his letters in which his sharp eye and droll wit capture the day-to-day confusion, excitement, and improbability of being part of a cloak- and-dagger operation. When Julia and Paul were transferred to Kunming, a rugged outpost at the foot of the Burma Road, they witnessed the chaotic end of the war in China and the beginnings of the Communist revolution that would shake the world. A Covert Affair chronicles their friendship with a brilliant and eccentric array of OSS agents, including Jane Foster, a wealthy, free-spirited artist, and Elizabeth MacDonald, an adventurous young reporter. In Paris after the war, Julia and Paul remained close to their intelligence colleagues as they struggled to start new lives, only to find themselves drawn into a far more terrifying spy drama. Relying on recently unclassified OSS and FBI documents, as well as previously unpublished letters and diaries, Conant vividly depicts a dangerous time in American history, when those who served their country suddenly found themselves called to account for their unpopular opinions and personal relationships.
LC Classification Number
D810.S8C3863 2011

Item description from the seller

About this seller

Trusted Treasures and Designs

100% positive feedback1.1K items sold

Joined Aug 2007
Usually responds within 24 hours
Hello! We are a family run business that specialize in finding great deals and providing them to customers such as yourself. Our items range from handcrafted items/collectibles to clothing, some of ...
See more

Seller feedback (631)

All ratings
Positive
Neutral
Negative
  • eBay automated Feedback- Feedback left by buyer.
    Past month
    Order completed successfully – tracked and on time
  • n***t (95)- Feedback left by buyer.
    Past 6 months
    Verified purchase
    As promised
  • m***m (3613)- Feedback left by buyer.
    Past year
    Verified purchase
    Very pleased with purchase!!Highly recommend this wonderful seller.So helpful to me in every way possible.I will never be able to thank you enough.It is beautiful and you are a blessing.Thank you again for helping me at a difficult time.God bless you.
    Reply from: heavenly_messenger- Feedback replied by seller heavenly_messenger.- Feedback replied by seller heavenly_messenger.
    I am so happy that you received it so quickly and that I was able to help. You are still in my prayers.