EXTRACTS: The Modesty Blaise Companion Expanded Edition © 2018 The Book Palace (425 PAGES in Full edition)

T H E M O D E S T Y B L A I S E C O M P A N I O N I I 394 VIRET “THE SILVER MISTRESS” P 139 Ex-Network contact in the Pyrenean border area of France. Provides background information on Chateau Lancieux, the headquarters of Colonel Jim Straik. VON KRANKEN, Capt. Siegfried “THE NIGHT OF MORNINGSTAR” P 65 One of the triumvirate in charge of The Watchmen. Responsible, with St. Maur, for recruitment, training and operations. It is he who draws up the plans for Operation Baystrike and Operation Morningstar. Leader of Nos. 1 and 2 Sections for Operation Morningstar. Plays chess against Golitsyn but is too easily distracted to be a serious opponent. Failed to include in his contingency analysis the possibility that the rig would make a viable strike, in this case natural gas. On deck and supervising the start of the operation he is the first of the leaders to be killed. His final reward was to be given West Germany to govern. What he got was an arrow fired by Modesty from Major the Earl St Maur’s longbow. VECCHI “SABRE TOOTH” P 138 Italian crook and old friend who Modesty did business with in Catania in the days of The Network. He employed Forli at that time. Now reported dead by Emilio, one of the group engaged to set up Modesty for the capability test ordered by Karz. VERONICA “THE XANADU TALISMAN” P 90 Girlfriend of Willie’s who did a thesis on Oscar Wilde at Cambridge. He took her to Newmarket races one year. He had to spend hours listening to her hold forth every night on her pet subject and it is because of this that he is able to quote Wilde so extensivly. VINEY, Jacques “MODESTY BLAISE” P 60 Chef at the Ritz London during the visit of Sheik Abu-Tahir for negotiations with the British Government for his oil. His fresh goats meat ragoût was a great success with the Sheik and his men. It earned him an invitation to come and work in Malaurak, with the promise of a new palace and kitchens. The offer was most courteously declined. VINEZZI The Italian equivalent of Sir Gerald Tarrant and René Vaubois, more or less. Originally created for a strip story in 1971 he appeared in one further strip story eleven years later, the same year as his literary debut in “The Night of Morningstar” . “THE NIGHT OF MORNINGSTAR” P 42 Italian policeman working for Interpol in the days of The Network. When Modesty undertakes the final clearing up operation by The Network she captures the white slave ship “Isparta” which is owned and run by Bora. She has the ship run aground on the prison island of Pantelleria complete with its crew and a cargo of five hundred kilos of base morphine. Her section chief in Rome is instructed to tip him off that this is happening as the island is within his jurisdiction.