Description

By (author) Macintyre, Ben

THE SUNDAY TIMES No. 1 BESTSELLER

WITH AN AFTERWORD BY JOHN LE CARR
É

”Riveting, astounding . . . An unputdownable postwar thriller” Observer

”Irresistibly readable” Sunday Times

”Worthy of John le Carr
é at his best” Guardian

”Hugely engrossing . . . Both authoritative and enthralling” William Boyd

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Kim Philby was the most notorious British defector and Soviet mole in history. Agent, double agent, traitor and enigma, he betrayed every secret of Allied operations to the Russians in the early years of the Cold War.

In the aftermath of the Second World War, Philby, Nicholas Elliott and James Jesus Angleton were rising stars in the intelligence world and shared every secret. Elliott and Angleton thought they knew Philby better than anyone – and then discovered they had not known him at all.

This is a story of loyalty, trust and treachery, of male friendships forged, and then systematically betrayed. With access to newly released MI5 files and previously unseen papers, A Spy Among Friends unlocks what was perhaps the last great secret of the Cold War.

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An engaging book on a tantalising and ultimately tragic subject, If it starts as a study of friendship, it ends as an indictment

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No one writes about deceit and subterfuge so dramatically, authoritatively or perceptively. To read A Spy Among Friends is a bit like climbing aboard a runaway train in terms of speed and excitement – except that Macintyre knows exactly where he is going and is in total control of his material

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It reads like fiction, which is testament to the extraordinary power of the story itself but also to the skills of the storyteller … at least as compelling as any of the great fictionalised accounts of Britain”s greatest traitor and one of the best real-life spy stories one is ever likely to read

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Illuminating, gripping and moving … What Macintyre reveals – but not too quickly – is the extent to which those who confided in him, as friends or colleagues or both, were made unwitting accessories to treason

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Thrilling … An extraordinary book … I’m not a lover of spy novels, yet I adored this book. Fictional spies never seem believable to me; novels are populated by stereotypes devoid of nuances that define the individual. That’s not the case here. Macintyre’s strength is his capacity for intimacy, the very thing Philby, Elliott and Angleton lacked … Just about perfect

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Whereas Milne thinks his friend betrayed his country because he genuinely believed in communism, Macintyre’s explanation is more intriguing and more convincing

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Riveting reading … The transcript of this rendezvous is Ben Macintyre’s scoop: the motor of an unputdownable postwar thriller whose every incredible detail is fact not fiction … A brilliant reconciliation of history and entertainment …A Spy Among Friends is not just an elegy, it is an unforgettable requiem

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Gripping … Ben Macintyre’s bottomlessly fascinating new book is an exploration of Kim Philby’s friendships, particularly with Nicholas Elliott … This book consists of 300 pages; I would have been happy had it been three times as long

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The life of Cambridge spy Kim Philby is analysed in this irresistibly readable study

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Swiftly paced, beautifully written … It is the small, human details that makes this grim, beguiling story so intoxicating

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A hugely engrossing contribution to Philby lore … Such a summary does no justice to Macintyre’s marvellously shrewd and