The Riddle of the Sands

About this book

One September at the start of the twentieth century, Carruthers, a bored young official of the Foreign Office, accepts an invitation from Davies, an old acquaintance, to join him for some duck shooting on his small yacht in the Baltic. He finds a tiny, uncomfortable boat, and Davies takes him to the sands and channels among the Frisian Islands off the German coast, where they slowly uncover a secret German plan to invade England.

Context and significance

Erskine Childers (1870–1922) published the novel in 1903 as a warning that Britain was unprepared, and it is often called the first modern spy novel. Childers later fought for Irish independence and was executed in 1922 during the Irish Civil War. Compare Buchan's The Thirty-Nine Steps.

About the author