The Spy behind The Fly: George Langelaan and David Cronenberg

In this episode of French Weird, host Russell Williams explores the fascinating, myth-laden life and fiction of Franco-British author George Langelaan (1908–1972). Best known as the author of "La Mouche"/"The Fly" (1957), the  short story adapted into David Cronenberg’s iconic 1986 body-horror film, Langelaan lived a life that rivalled his most eccentric fiction.We unpack his World War Two career as a Special Operations Executive (SOE) agent, the bizarre claim that he underwent facial reconstruction surgery as a undercover disguise, his decades spent as an unsuccessful ghost hunter and a legendary anecdote involving occultist Alistair Crowley performing bathroom rituals during a Paris chess tournament. Beyond "The Fly", we explore Langelaan's 1962 collection Nouvelles de l'Anti-Monde (Out of Time), examining forgotten masterpieces of "time horror", reincarnation, cold war television anxieties, and autonomous chess-playing automata.Suggested readingThe images I mention of Langelaan - and a telling of the Crowley anecdote, can be found here: "Les Chesseurs Britanniques de Paris: Part 4 The Beast." The Streatham & Brixton Chess Blog, 26 Feb. 2016, streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.com/2016/02/les-chesseurs-britanniques-de-paris_26.htmlWorks by George Langelaan"La Mouche" ("The Fly") — First published in French in Paris-Match (1957) and translated in Playboy (1957).Nouvelles de l'Antimonde — Short story collection published by Éditions Robert Laffont (1962, reissued 1966 & 2018 by L'Arbre Vengeur). Translated into English as Out of Time (1964). Featured stories include "Récession" ("Recession"), "La Dame d'outre-nulle-part" ("The Woman from Nowhere"), "Le Miracle" ("The Miracle"), "L'autre main" ("The Other Hand"), "Robots pensants" ("Thinking Robots"), and "Temps mort" ("Dead Time").Un nommé Langdon / Le Masque d'un agent secret — Two-volume war memoirs published by Club des Amis du Livre (1963). Published in English under the titles Memoirs of a Secret Agent, The Masks of War, and Knights of the Floating Silk.Treize Fantômes — Collection of ghost-hunting anecdotes and folklore (1971).Other Books, Anthologies & Publications Planète magazine, edited by Louis Pauwels and Jacques Bergier (with Jacques Mousseau et al)  (1961–1969).Le Matin des Magiciens (The Morning of the Magicians) by Louis Pauwels and Jacques Bergier (1960).Promethean Horrors: Classic Stories of Mad Science, ed. Xavier Aldana Reyes (British Library Tales of the Weird, 2019).Danse Macabre: Strange Stories from France, ed. Mike Ashley (British Library Tales of the Weird, 2026).Yoga by Emmanuel Carrère (2020).The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (1890).Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (1886).Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (1818)."Special operations: a hidden chapter in the histories of facial surgery and human enhancement" by Roderick Bailey (Medical Humanities, 2020)."The secret scalpel: plastic surgery for wartime disguise" by Roderick Bailey (The Lancet, 384, 1421-1422)If you'd like to send French Weird a short voice note, you can do so here