252 • HOUSEHOLD, GEOFFREY
traditional German suppliers. Later he was to open up new markets
in Greece, the Near East, and South America, as well as achieving
success with two novels,The Third Hour(1937) andRogue Male
(1939). Household’s return to London coincided with the Munich
Crisis, which prompted him to volunteer for the reserves. On the
basis of his claim to speak German, French, and Romanian, he was
instructed to attend two short intelligence courses. However, it was
not until August 1939 that he was to be summoned to the War Office
and dispatched toCairoon a secret assignment for theSecret Intelli-
gence Service(SIS).
SIS’s objective was the destruction of the Romanian oilfields in
anticipation of a German invasion, and a group of saboteurs was sent
to Bucharest from Egypt via Palestine and Turkey. ‘‘I was forbidden
to travel on my current passport which gave my profession as au-
thor,’’ recalled Household. ‘‘Authors, said the authorities, were im-
mediately suspected by every security officer,Compton Mackenzie
andSomerset Maughamhad destroyed our reputation as unworldly
innocents forever. So I was given a new passport which stated that I
was an Insurance Agent.’’ At Ploesti, Household helped coordinate
a clandestine survey of the oil installations and, once this had been
concluded, was given a cover diplomatic post at the British Legation
and participated in the notoriousIron Gatesfiasco.
In October 1940 Household returned to Cairo and was appointed a
security officer in the Field Security Police. His first posting was to
Greece, but after the British withdrawal he joined Security Intelli-
gence Middle East (SIME) and was transferred to Jerusalem to work
underMI5’s local representative, Henry Hunloke, MP, thedefence
security officer. Until the end of the war, as he recalled in his autobi-
ographyAgainst the Wind(1958), he moved between Beirut and
Baghdad, but never actually caught any spies. He ended up in charge
of SIME’s office in Haifa in 1945 and was then brought home to
London with his second wife, Ilona, who was Hungarian. However,
before returning to civilian life he was posted to Germany to write
an account of the Guards Armoured Division’s recent battles for the
Ministry of Information.
After he was demobilized, Household returned to writing and pub-
lished several novels and books of short stories, includingArabesque
andFellow Passenger, though none achieved the success ofRogue