Theodore Edward le Bouthillier Allbeury (24 October 1917 – 4 December 2005) was a British author of espionage fiction.^[1][2][3] He was an intelligence officer in the Special Operations Executive between 1940 and 1947, reaching the rank of lieutenant colonel. He is believed to be the only British secret agent to have parachuted into Nazi Germany during the war, remaining there until the Allied armies arrived. During the Cold War he was captured and tortured when running agents across the border between East and West Germany. After running his own advertising agency, he became managing director of the seafort-based pirate radio station Radio 390 in 1964, later moving to the ship-based Radio 355 until its closure in August 1967.^[4][5]

Allbeury's first novel, A Choice of Enemies, was published in 1972.^[6] He went on to publish over 40 novels, under the names Patrick Kelly, Richard Butler, and his own.^[7]

Allbeury was born in Stockport, Cheshire, and educated at King Edward VI Aston School, Birmingham.^[4]

Allbeury's 1984 novel No Place to Hide was filmed as Hostage (1992) and starred Sam Neill, Talisa Soto and James Fox. The 1992 film Blue Ice starring Michael Caine is based on Allbeury characters.

BBC Radio 4 broadcast adaptions of The Other Side Of Silence (8-part serial, 1982), Pay Any Price (10-part serial, 1983), No Place To Hide (8-part serial, 1984), The Lonely Margins (1988) and Deep Purple (1993).

He was married to Grazyna, who died in 1999, and they had a son and three daughters.^[4]