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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'Growing up in the 1950s, the three Doherty children were trained by their parents to memorise car number plates, to spot unusual behaviour on the street and, most important of all, to avoid drawing attention to themselves.
'The children became unwitting foot soldiers in Australia's battle against Soviet infiltration in the Cold War. They attended political rallies, stood watch on houses owned by communist sympathisers, and insinuated themselves into the UFO Society. In 1956 the Doherty family went on a beach holiday with Vladimir and Evdokia Petrov, the famous Soviet defectors, who were hiding from Soviet assassins.
'Dudley and Joan Doherty swore their children to secrecy, and for decades, they didn't even discuss among themselves the work they did for ASIO.
'With My Little Eye is a poignant and very funny account of a peculiar childhood in 1950s suburban Australia.' (Publication summary)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Sound recording.
Works about this Work
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David McKnight Review of Sandra Hogan, With My Little Eye : The Incredible True Story of a Family of Spies in the Suburbs and of John Fahey, Traitors and Spies: Espionage and Corruption in High Places in Australia, 1901–50
2022
single work
— Appears in: Australian Journal of Biography and History , no. 6 2022; (p. 223-225)
— Review of With My Little Eye : The Incredible True Story of a Family of Spies in the Suburbs 2021 single work biography 'The seemingly never-ending public fascination with spies and espionage has produced two books that could not be more different. One is a family drama that verges on soap opera, the other, a scholarly study that points an accusatory finger. The subtitle of Sandra Hogan’s book, With My Little Eye, gives an accurate flavour of what is to come: ‘The Incredible True Story of a Family of Spies in the Suburbs’. It is over the top and yet true. Also over the top and more polemical and controversial is John Fahey’s Traitors and Spies. (Introduction)
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The Doherty Bunch : Recruiting Your Own Children as Spies
2021
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , April no. 430 2021; (p. 21)
— Review of With My Little Eye : The Incredible True Story of a Family of Spies in the Suburbs 2021 single work biography'Here’s a story about a spy with a wooden leg, another spy who liked to sit around with his penis exposed, and a spy’s daughter who spent decades refusing to believe her father was dead. If this tale of an everyday family of secret agents were a novel or a Netflix drama, we’d laugh, frown, and admire it as a surreal fantasy. But it is real, the children are still alive, and their recollections are proof that truth is nuttier than fiction.' (Introduction)
-
The Doherty Bunch : Recruiting Your Own Children as Spies
2021
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , April no. 430 2021; (p. 21)
— Review of With My Little Eye : The Incredible True Story of a Family of Spies in the Suburbs 2021 single work biography'Here’s a story about a spy with a wooden leg, another spy who liked to sit around with his penis exposed, and a spy’s daughter who spent decades refusing to believe her father was dead. If this tale of an everyday family of secret agents were a novel or a Netflix drama, we’d laugh, frown, and admire it as a surreal fantasy. But it is real, the children are still alive, and their recollections are proof that truth is nuttier than fiction.' (Introduction)
-
David McKnight Review of Sandra Hogan, With My Little Eye : The Incredible True Story of a Family of Spies in the Suburbs and of John Fahey, Traitors and Spies: Espionage and Corruption in High Places in Australia, 1901–50
2022
single work
— Appears in: Australian Journal of Biography and History , no. 6 2022; (p. 223-225)
— Review of With My Little Eye : The Incredible True Story of a Family of Spies in the Suburbs 2021 single work biography 'The seemingly never-ending public fascination with spies and espionage has produced two books that could not be more different. One is a family drama that verges on soap opera, the other, a scholarly study that points an accusatory finger. The subtitle of Sandra Hogan’s book, With My Little Eye, gives an accurate flavour of what is to come: ‘The Incredible True Story of a Family of Spies in the Suburbs’. It is over the top and yet true. Also over the top and more polemical and controversial is John Fahey’s Traitors and Spies. (Introduction)
Awards
- 2022 longlisted Davitt Award — Best Debut
- 2022 longlisted Davitt Award — Best True Crime Book
- 2021 shortlisted Queensland Literary Awards — The Courier-Mail People's Choice Queensland Book of the Year
- 1950s
