The Riddle Of The Sands Analysis

The invasion literature that developed at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century has been the object of numerous studies as it is acknowledged to have added to the increasing tensions between Britain, Germany and France leading up to the First World War in 1914. For example, in 1969, the French historian Marc Ferro wrote: "Over twenty works in England foresaw the British surprised, invaded and defeat Overall this literature reflected the nagging worries besetting the country." (The Great War.P. 29-30).

It would seem that the British did have some legitimate reasons for concern. So, not only literary fantasy was at the origin of the founding of the Secret Service Bureau but also real facts. The …show more content…
The problem here was that the waters around the Frisian Isles were notoriously shallow, infested with sandbanks. This forms the plot of the book. Childers imagined that the Germans were able to build special boats adapted to navigation in both around the Frisian Isles and the North Sea.

But two Englishmen, Arthur Davies and Charles Carruthers, stumble across the Germans' dastardly plan and eventually foil it. The Riddle of the Sands is very technical with much attention paid to details. Indeed, The Riddle of the Sands was an instant success. Childers himself expressed the hope that "nobody will read into this story of adventure any intention of provoking feelings of hostility to Germany". (The Riddle.P. …show more content…
It did just that. The very same year, the Conservative government of Prime Minister Arthur Balfour announced the setting up of a new Royal Navy base at Rosyth in Scotland. It looked pretty much as if Childers was playing his part in the current arms race between Britain and Germany. But then followed a rather bizarre episode, once again evidence that fact and fiction were blurred. In August, two British officers, Captain Trench and Lieutenant Brandon, were arrested by the Germans on the Frisian island of Borkum. They had been sent there by British naval intelligence. In December, they were put on trial in Leipzig and condemned to a prison sentence. It then transpired that Brandon had read The Riddle of the Sands not less than three times. Childers would later meet the two spies. Even Churchill drew his strategic inspiration from the book when the war broke out in August 1914. He was then First Lord of the admiralty and argued during a cabinet meeting that the Royal Navy should seize one of the Dutch Frisian