  '''''Our Man In Havana''''' (1958) is a novel by British author Graham Greene.  Certain aspects of the plot, in particular secret military constructions, anticipate the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.  It was adapted into a film of the same name in 1959, directed by Carol Reed and starring Alec Guinness; in 1963 it was adapted into an opera by Malcolm Williamson, to a libretto by Sidney Gilliat, who had worked on the film. In 2007, it was adapted into a play by Clive Francis.  == Background == Greene joined MI6 in August 1941.Christopher Hawtree. [ &quot;A Muse on the tides of history: Elisabeth Dennys&quot;]. ''The Guardian'', 10 February 1999. Retrieved 16 April 2011.  An interesting sidelight of Greene's stint in the SIS is the story of Garbo. Garbo, a Spanish double agent in Lisbon, gave his German handlers disinformation, by pretending to control a ring of agents all over England. In fact he invented armed forces movements and operations from maps, guides and standard military references. Garbo was the inspiration for Wormold, the protagonist of ''Our Man In Havana''.Smyth, Denis, “Our Man in Havana, Their Man in Madrid: Literary Invention in Espionage Fact and Fiction,” Spy Fiction, Spy Films and Real Intelligence (Wesley K. Wark, ed.), London: Frank Cass, 1991, pp. 117-135.  The first version of the story published in 1940s was set in Tallinn, Estonia, in 1938. The English protagonist needed money to pay for his wife's extravagances.   ==Plot== The novel, a black comedy, is set in Havana during the Fulgencio Batista regime. James Wormold, a vacuum cleaner retailer, is approached by Hawthorne, who offers him work for the British secret service. Wormold's wife had divorced him and now he lives with his sixteen year-old beautiful and devoutly Catholic daughter Milly. Since Wormold does not make enough money to pay Milly's extravagances, he accepts the offer.  Because he has no information to send to London, Wormold fakes his reports using information found in newspapers and invents a fictitious network of agents. Some of the names in his network are those of real people (most of whom he has never met) and some are made up. At one point, he decides to make his reports &quot;exciting&quot; and sends to London sketches of vacuum cleaner parts, telling them that those are sketches of a secret military installation in the mountains. In London nobody except Hawthorne, who alone knows Wormold sells vacuum cleaners, doubts this report. But Hawthorne does not report his doubts for fear of losing his job. In the light of the new developments, London sends Wormold a secretary, Beatrice Severn, and a radio assistant with much spy paraphernalia.   On arriving, Beatrice tells Wormold she has orders to take over his contacts. Her first request is to contact the pilot Raúl. Under pressure, Wormold develops an elaborate plan that results in Raul's death. Raul has an accident and dies on his way to the airport. From this point, Wormold's manufactured universe becomes a reality.  Together, Beatrice and Wormold try to save his fictional, now real, agents from getting killed.  Meanwhile, London finds out that an unspecified enemy intends to poison Wormold at a trade association Luncheon where Wormold is the speaker. Wormold identifies the enemy, Carter, and spills the poisoned whisky on the floor. The chef's dog drinks it and dies.  Wormold has to get the list of all the other spies in Havana which is in the possession of Captain Segura. Segura plans to marry Milly. Wormold gets Segura drunk in a game of draughts using miniature bottles of Scotch and Bourbon as the game pieces. Each piece taken has to be drunk at once. Segura falls asleep. Wormold takes his gun and the list. To avenge the murder of his close friend Dr Hasselbacher, Wormold kills Carter with Segura's pistol. Wormold sends the list as a microdot photograph on a postage stamp to London. But it proves a blank when processed.  Hawthorne and the secret service are then told about the deception. Beatrice learns the truth from Wormold and loves the scam and his ingenuity. They are summoned to London. The top people, rather than admit they were taken in, promote Wormold to a teaching post at headquarters and recommend him for an OBE. Beatrice is posted to Jakarta. However the two meet in a temperance hotel and decide to marry. Milly is to go to a Swiss finishing school paid for by Wormold's scam earnings.  == Cuba's attitude == The revolutionary government of Cuba allowed the film version of ''Our Man in Havana'' to be filmed in the Cuban capital, but Fidel Castro complained that the novel did not accurately portray the brutality of the Batista regime.   Greene commented:  Alas, the book did me little good with the new rulers in Havana. In poking fun at the British Secret Service, I had minimized the terror of Batista's rule. I had not wanted too black a background for a light-hearted comedy, but those who suffered during the years of dictatorship could hardly be expected to appreciate that my real subject was the absurdity of the British agent and not the justice of a revolution.   Greene returned to Havana between 1963 and 1966, but his disagreement with the regime's treatment of Catholics, intellectuals, and homosexuals left him at odds with the government, and his work is not commemorated in Cuba.  