The French writer recalled how Soviet or Bulgarian agents tried to blackmail him with an intimate photograph taken during a meeting with a female spy in post-war Sofia. His theatrical response reportedly left the agents with no leverage.
Romain Gary, the celebrated French writer who died by suicide in 1980, once recounted an unusual encounter with intelligence agents in Sofia shortly after the Second World War. Working at the French embassy, he said he became the target of a so-called honey trap, in which a romantic or sexual relationship is used to gather compromising material for blackmail.
Rather than showing fear, Gary took offence at what he considered an unflattering portrayal. He argued that the photograph damaged the image of a Frenchman abroad, particularly someone serving as an official representative.
He then demanded that the agents arrange another photo session, this time with the daughter of the interior minister, whom he described as an attractive young woman. More importantly, he wanted to be photographed before the encounter, at the height of his passion.
The agents reportedly refused and withdrew, leaving Gary free of the attempted blackmail. The story has the theatrical flair of one of his own literary characters, although no trace of the alleged photograph has been found in the archives. It is therefore possible that Gary embellished or invented the episode.
The anecdote has resurfaced amid renewed attention to honey traps and alleged intelligence operations involving prominent business figures. Whatever its factual basis, Gary’s account offers an unconventional response to an age-old method of espionage: turning the threat of humiliation into a joke.
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