Six Car Lengths Behind an Elephant: Undercover & Overwhelmed as a CIA Wife and Mother

When a young woman in Frank’s class, in the bloom of idealism and spirituality, asked him, “What did your experience in India teach you? What did you learn from that incredible country?,” he replied, “Always drive six car lengths behind an elephant.”

“If you’re married to a spy, the always fraught arena of a relationship turns into a positive minefield. What does that all-night absence mean? What can you begin to say to the kids? In Six Car Lengths Behind an Elephant, Lillian McCloy gives us the story of a life spent around secret intelligence that is funny and charming and in every wonderful sense, deeply spooky. This is the story John le Carré keeps out of his gripping bestsellers.”

– Pico Iyer, author of The Art of Stillness and Video Nights in Kathmandu

“We’ve all read the romanticized accounts of a CIA officer’s life overseas. Rarely do we ever get to read about the spy’s family. Six Car Lengths Behind an Elephant by Lillian McCloy is an engrossing, decades-long memoir of foreign life under deep cover for the CIA. McCloy reveals the intrigue, danger, and humor of clandestine life in her thoroughly entertaining account of a CIA family’s nomadic lifestyle. Few living in the U.S. will ever encounter the unique trials and tribulations of the McCloy family, but what a fascinating read it is!”

-Alan B. Trabue, CIA (Ret.), author of A Life of Lies and Spies