Our Man Down in Havana

The Story Behind Graham Greene's Cold War Spy Novel

Christopher Hull

Exploring the backstory that led to the writing of Graham Greene's beloved satirical spy novel, Our Man Down in Havana evokes this pivotal time and place in the author's life.

When U.S. immigration authorities deported Graham Greene from Puerto Rico in 1954, the British author made an unplanned visit to Havana and the former MI6 officer had stumbled upon the ideal setting for a comic espionage story. Three years later, he returned in the midst of Castro’s guerrilla insurgency against a U.S.-backed dictator to begin writing his iconic novel Our Man in Havana. Twelve weeks after its publication, in January 1959, the Cuban Revolution triumphed, soon transforming a capitalist playground into a communist stronghold.

Combining biography, history, politics, and a measure of psychoanalysis, Our Man Down in Havana investigates the real story behind Greene’s fiction. It includes his many visits to a pleasure island that became a revolutionary island, turning his chance involvement into a political commitment. His Cuban novel describes an amateur agent who dupes his intelligence chiefs with invented reports about “concrete platforms and unidentifiable pieces of giant machinery.” With eerie prescience, Greene’s satirical tale had foretold the Cold War’s most perilous episode, the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

Exploiting a wealth of archival material and interviews with key protagonists, Our Man Down in Havana delves into the story behind and beyond the author’s prophetic Cuban tale, focusing on one slice of Greene’s manic life: a single novel and its complex history.

Christopher Hull, PhD, is Senior Lecturer in Spanish & Latin American Studies at the University of Chester. His research focuses on British interactions with Latin America. He first visited Cuba in 1997 and has traveled extensively around the island during seventeen further visits, often in the footsteps of Graham Greene. He lives in England.

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Endorsements & Reviews

"A lively and informative work. Hull wraps his literary, cinematic, and political history in a pocket-biography of Greene, tailored to set the author’s espionage story in context." Wall Street Journal

"A focused and entertaining account of the making of Greene’s novel of espionage, Our Man in Havana. Hull’s book is a delicious companion to the tale Greene confected from the incompetence of spooks and an island in turmoil." The Economist

"Hull minutely examines the plot, characters, context, creation, reception, filming, and afterlife of Greene's 1958 satirical novel, Our Man in Havana. Drawing on Greene's published and unpublished writings; studies and biographies of Greene; abundant archival material; and his own 17 visits to Cuba, Hull sets Greene's life amid Cuba's tumultuous history. A biography notable for its deep research." Kirkus Reviews

"Hull tells a marvelous story. His research is, frankly, humbling: he has found many documents that no one has read before and many witnesses who have never been interviewed. The book is vivid and accurate in ways that most other works on Greene simply aren’t." Library Review

"Often insightful and always meticulous book. Those who relish every detail of Greene’s life will find Hull’s book rewarding. A stalwart and original contribution to Greeneology." Financial Times

"Anybody interested in either Greene or Cuba will find this a splendid read, with a trainspotterly level of detail. The best thing about Hull’s book, however, is also the best thing about Greene’s novel: the resurrection of Batista’s Havana in all its delicious loucheness and horrific violence." The Daily Telegraph

"Cuba meant a great deal to Greene. Hull’s Our Man Down in Havana conjures the Cuban capital in all its tatterdemalion glory and Afro-Caribbean collision of skin colors and cultures." New Statesman

"A completely fascinating book, immaculately researched, full of insight and telling detail. A revelation and a delight." A completely fascinating book, immaculately researched, full of insight and telling detail. A revelation and a delight.

"Meticulously researched, impressively informative, exceptionally well written, organized and presented." Midwest Book Review

"Richly detailed and packed with insight not just into the historical context of the novel and film, but also into the creative process itself." Matthew Parker, author of 'Goldeneye: Where Bond Was Born'

"It is the kind of obsessive book I like best—a full-body immersion into Greeneland." The Spectator (UK)

"‘Spying is eternal,’ opines George Smiley in one of John Le Carré’s thrillers. Fiction or not, he is right. While technical intelligence in today’s digital world floods agencies with too much intelligence, the need for ‘humint’—spies—remains as strong as ever. In the dirty, corrupt world of exploiting other human beings: traitors; idealists; or just plain greedy; reality offers a darker picture. Christopher Hull’s Our Man Down in Havana dissects Graham Greene’s classic satire on spies with forensic skill, exposing the rotten heart of the CIA's ‘wilderness of mirrors.' An excellent book for intelligence professionals and the general reader alike. Read it and ponder—sometimes fact is stranger than fiction." Colonel John Hughes-Wilson, author of 'A Brief History of the Cold War' and 'The Secret State'

"Our Man Down in Havana conjures the Cuban capital in all its pre-Castro glory." Ian Thomson Evening Standard

"The data for this book was compiled from an extensive range of archival investigation and a thorough analysis of Greene’s biography and other works. Christopher Hull’s book can productively appeal to researchers and students working on Graham Greene’s life and works as well as to those studying British policies in Cuba." World Literature Today