The Secret Servant (Lyall novel)
1980 novel by Gavin Lyall
The Secret Servant is a third person narrative novel by English author Gavin Lyall, first published in 1980, and the first of his series of novels with the character “Harry Maxim” as the protagonist.
Plot introduction
Former SAS Major Harry Maxim is assigned to Number 10 Downing Street as a special assistant to George Harbinger, private secretary to the Prime Minister, following the suicide of his predecessor with the British Secret Service. Maxim is assigned to protect Professor John White Tyler, Britain's premier military strategist on nuclear weapons policy and famed war hero (as well as an insatiable lecher). Tyler's many enemies, including local pacifists, leftists, and radical students, as well as the KGB will do anything, perhaps even murder, to keep Tyler from addressing a NATO summit in Luxembourg. However, are various events surrounding Tyler related? Such as a hand grenade thrown through the door to the Prime Minister's residence, or the death of a Czech defector? Assisted by MI5 liaison officer Agnes Algar, Maxim must uncover a horrific secret from Tyler's wartime past in order to prevent a massive foreign relations disaster, as well as keeping Tyler alive.
Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
Lyall originally wrote The Secret Servant as the pilot episode of a proposed BBC TV series. The series was directed by Alistair Reid, with screenplay by Brian Clemens. The role of Harry Maxim was played by Charles Dance, with Jill Meager as Agnes Algar, Harvey Ashby as George Harbinger and Dan O'Herlihy as Prof.
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Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7763089. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1980.
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This entry incorporates text from “The Secret Servant (Lyall novel)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.