The Prime Minister Was a Spy that he had been acting in bad faith. The Prime Minister Was a Spy The Prime Minister Was a Spy is a 1983 book by British writer Anthony Grey. The book's premise is that Harold Holt, Prime Minister of Australia from 1966 to 1967, was a lifelong spy for the Chinese government, under both the Nationalist and Communist regimes. Its most famous claim is that Holt faked his own death – rather than drowning, he boarded a Chinese submarine stationed off the Australian coast and lived the rest of his life in Beijing. The book was widely ridiculed upon its
The Prime Minister Was a Spy officials". "The Prime Minister Was a Spy" made the following claims: Tom Frame, Holt's biographer, describes Titcombe and Grey's account as a "complete fabrication". He notes that there is "no corroborative evidence" for most of their claims, as none of the documents referred to in the book were produced. Furthermore, Holt was stridently anti-Communist, the large sums of money he supposedly received were never reflected in his lifestyle, he was highly unlikely to have deserted his wife and children, and the water off of Cheviot Beach was much too shallow for a submarine to submerge. Zara Holt observed that her