SuitabookBelonging beyond family status
Alfie attends a school where nearly everyone has an agent or spy parent, while his father is a postman.
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Book details
Justin Richards - Author
This is a comic spy-school adventure built around an outsider: Alfie enters a world designed for agents’ children despite having an ordinary family background. Expect eccentric lessons, covert danger and friendships, with humour shaping the premise rather than a realistic treatment of espionage.
A hilarious new series for younger readers, following the misadventures of an ordinary boy at an extraordinary school for young spies...Jake's dad is head of the Secret Service. Alice's dad is a double agent. Harry's dad has infiltrated SPUD – the Secret Partners for Undertaking Destruction. And Alfie's dad... is a postman.Thunder Raker Manor is a very exclusive school. All the pupils are there because their parents or guardians are agents and spies.All except one.Because eight-year-old Alfie's dad isn't anything to do with the secret services. He's the local postman who just reckoned that Thunder Raker Manor was a great school. So when the Head Teacher receives a letter from the Prime Minister saying that Alfie has been given a special place and will start immediately, he isn't to know that Alfie's dad wrote it and slipped it in with the 'special' post...Now Alfie has to get to grips with Thunder Raker's unusual curriculum and some even stranger new friends. He's got classes in camouflage (if anyone can ever find Mr Trick) and Assassination (only kids keep going missing from Miss Fortune's class). And he's now in permanent danger from SPUD agents. But to his surprise, Alfie finds that he might just be quite good at this spying game...
Book Brief
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Sign in for personalised guidanceThis is a comic spy-school adventure built around an outsider: Alfie enters a world designed for agents’ children despite having an ordinary family background. Expect eccentric lessons, covert danger and friendships, with humour shaping the premise rather than a realistic treatment of espionage.
Alfie attends a school where nearly everyone has an agent or spy parent, while his father is a postman.
Alfie studies camouflage and assassination while facing danger from SPUD agents, and the premise is presented as hilarious and adventurous.
Although Alfie lacks a secret-service family background, he discovers that he might be good at spying.
Some children may want to discuss the book’s treatment of danger, disappearance and assassination-themed lessons.
This is a grounded book brief while Suitabook strengthens the analysis: some draft conclusions still depend on unresolved evidence.
Book information
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Checked: 18 September 2026.
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