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With My Little Eye

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With My Little Eye

By: Sandra Hogan
Narrated by: Jessica Douglas-Henry
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About this listen

The very funny true story of three children recruited by their parents to work for ASIO in the 1950s.

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 infiltrated 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.

Sandra Hogan is a journalist, writer, reviewer and business writing teacher.

©2021 Sandra Hogan (P)2021 W F Howes Freedom & Security Political Science Politics & Government Espionage Funny Soviet Union

Critic Reviews

"Hilarious, moving and brilliantly told." (Susan Johnson)

"An intimate and compelling look at an ordinary family who happen to be ASIO agents." (Kristina Olsson)

All stars
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This account casts light on a family of "spies", white Australia of the mid 20th century, and the life of a daughter seeking meaning in her childhood memories. I was fascinated the whole way through.

Such an interesting piece of Australian history

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I love this book, it’s amazing. An all happening in our own backyard. Makes me wish I had followed my dream and joined ASIO

I love this

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story was enlightening. narrator was ok, maybe a little bland. but I really loved this interesting information about this time in our history

loved it

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Not being a 'natural' reader, it's only been in recent months that I've tried Audiobooks, wanting to 'read' a series of true life stories with humour interspersed. Anything else, I viewed as 'probably a hard slog'.

What led me to purchasing this Audiobook was hearing a few days ago, about this family in "Conversations" on ABC Radio. The Author was being interviewed about this book, the story of a family of Australian Spies. It grabbed my attention & within a couple of days had downloaded the Audiobook.

Being about a family of Spies was different to the normal, individual Spy. Fascinating was how a husband became a Spy, 'recruited his wife, then as they had children, had to decide how their 'little ones' should fit into their lives of espionage.

Anyone who likes Spy themes, true stories and family stories, I think would enjoy this book & would highly recommend it to such people. It's a book with titbits of humour interspersed, intrigue with a twist and the story of how a family had to adapt to 'normal' life after the Spy life ended. Thoroughly brilliant!

Espionage Brilliance!!

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Interesting and fascinating, I never would have thought this was life in Australia. It is great that the family can finally tell their story. Narrator was easy to listen to, with the exception of the voice used to quote a male.

Fascinating

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My Bookclub read this book recently and we all (10 of us) had very similar opinions about it, so this is a summary.

This is a very interesting story and it sparks several of the group to want to research ASIO further, however we all agreed it is very poorly written. We were very disappointed with how the story is told and, in particular, some of the conclusions the author reached which seemed very disrespectful. I hope one of the family members decided to write their own story.

This family experienced some very difficult times and some details given are shocking, and I don't feel the writer handles these in an appropriate and sensitive manner. The narration is ok, it's a little bit like someone reading a storybook to children, which is incredibly inappropriate for some of the material.

Fascinating story, very poorly told

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A strange mixed up story of asio spies prior to present day. Interesting snippets. Ridiculous to call it funny.

Where’s the funny?

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In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.