# Miss King — Ashenden character guide

> Miss King in Ashenden by W. Somerset Maugham.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Miss King Ashenden, a Miss King

**First appearance:** 0004-iii-miss-king

## Snapshot

A British spinster drawn into intelligence work, whose ordinary life becomes the unwitting cover for operations she only half understands.

## Who they are

Miss King enters Ashenden's world as an unremarkable Englishwoman abroad, precisely the sort of person no one would suspect of anything. Her ordinariness is her usefulness, and the service exploits it without much regard for what it costs her. She matters because she represents the quiet, disposable instruments of a war fought by people who never asked to be part of it.

## In the story

### [III: Miss King](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/ashenden_se/chapters/iii-miss-king)

The elderly English governess who suffers a stroke; she desperately tries to communicate something to Ashenden but can only say 'England' before dying.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/ashenden_se/characters/miss_king
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/ashenden_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/ashenden_se/characters