Table of Contents

Part I: Pre-War
1: Origins: c. 1670-1911
2: Childhood: 1911-1924
3: Shrewsbury: 1924-1929
4: Balliol: 1929-1933
5: Philosophy in Oxford: 1918-1933
6: All Souls: 1933-1935
7: Collingwood, C. I. Lewis, and Aristotle: 1935-1938
8: The Brethren, Politics, and Wittgenstein: 1937-1940
Part II: War
9: Jean and the Army: 1939-1941
10: MI14, Marriage, and North African Intelligence: 1941
11: Injury, Scotland, and the Desert War: 1941-1942
12: The Coming of the Martians: 1942
13: Norfolk House, Dieppe, and Torch: 1942
14: Skyscraper, Invade Mecum, and Exile: 1943
15: The Hunt for the V-Weapons: 1943-1944
16: At Peter Robinson's: 1943-1944
17: Towards D-Day: 1944
18: D-Day and the Battle of Normandy: 1944
19: Arnhem and the Ardennes: 1944-1945
20: War's End: 1945
Part III: Post-War
21: Post-War Britain and Oxford: 1945-1947
22: 'Other Minds': 1946-1947
23: Ordinary Language Philosophy: 1947-1959
24: The Oral and the Written: 1947-1959
25: Sense and Sensibilia: 1947-1959
26: Truth and Logic: 1950-1952
27: White's Professor: 1952-1954
28: Domestic Life and the Americans: 1952-1954
29: Harvard and Speech-Acts: 1955
30: Abilities and Excuses: 1956-1957
31: Royaumont and Anscombe: 1958
32: California, Semantics, and Sound Symbolism: 1958-1959
33: Ayer, Scandinavia, and the Gellner Controversy: 1959
34: Final Illness: 1959-1960

About the Author

M. W. Rowe is an Honorary Researcher in Philosophy at the University of East Anglia (UEA). He was educated at Cranbrook School and Cambridge and York Universities. He was formerly Head of English at Pocklington School, Yorkshire, Lecturer in Aesthetics at Birkbeck College, London, and Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at UEA. He is particularly interested in military history, linguistic philosophy, classical music, nineteenth- and twentieth-century literature, and the
intersections between philosophy and literature. In addition to his work on J. L. Austin, he is currently supervising a recording of the complete works of Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst (1812-65).

Reviews

Scrupulous and engrossing
*Best Books of the Year 2023, The Economist*

A revelatory work of intelligence history, ingeniously built from scattered and skimpy materials.
*Richard Davenport-Hines, Books of the Year 2023, Times Literary Supplement*

A superb biography...dense and readable.
*Tom Stoppard, Books of the Year 2023, Times Literary Supplement*

Meticulously researched yet uncluttered ... philosophically illuminating.
*Jane O'Grady, Times Literary Supplement*

[ Rowe's] research is so thorough, his exposition so meticulous and his presentation so clear that even the digressions are a delight
*Jonathan Ree, Literary Review*

a marvellous book . . . thoroughly absorbing... First, it gives a detailed account of Austin's philosophical development, his background, his works and his academic career and influence, accompanied at each stage by interpretations and criticisms that are judicious and insightful. Rowe shows himself to be an excellent philosopher in his own right. Second, the book presents the results of Rowe's painstaking archival research on Austin's intelligence career, placing it in the context of British and Allied intelligence concerning Western Europe and North Africa. It gives a fascinating account of the way military intelligence is generated and the crucial role it plays in every military operation... Third, Rowe offers a perceptive analysis of Austin's personal qualities and their part in his academic and military engagements.
*Thomas Nagel, London Review of Books*

well-researched, and admirably written intellectual biography.
*Stephen Mulhall, Society*