The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley was probably my favourite book of 2025, and one of the main characters of that book, Graham Gore, is given a copy of Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household. It becomes for him, a talisman of sorts. So of course, I set out to find a copy and read it. Ideally I wanted an older edition, like what I imagined Gore himself would have had, and I also for whatever reason wanted the serendipity of finding it in a shop rather than just going onto abebooks or another site to order a copy. On one of my visits to Capitol Hill Books in Washington, DC (one of my favourite bookstores, and always a stop when I visit the city), I chanced upon not just a used copy, but a Folio edition. Home with me it went.

The premise of the story is an unnamed man, a sort of secret services operative or mercenary, seemingly finds himself within shooting range of an unnamed despot in an unnamed European country (are you sending a pattern here?). Because of the time frame it is set, the target is generally thought to be Hitler and at least one edition of the book has him in the sights of a scope on its cover. But that’s really neither here nor there. Our guy is caught before he can do the deed, tortured and left for dead. But he survives, and the rest of book is his retelling of his escape and quest to remain alive, despite being hunted down like an animal, quite literally.

I’d really be interested to know why Bradley chose this book of all books for her hero to fixate upon. I can see some parallels in what Graham Gore (a real life figure who was part of the doomed Terror expedition to the Arctic) likely experienced while marooned in a frozen landscape, and the unnamed man’s own mental state while isolated. I can also see how the fictional Gore would feel a man apart. But still, it seems a peculiar choice to me so I’d really love to know more.