Synopses & Reviews
Eddie Chapman was a charming criminal, a con man, and a philanderer. He was also one of the most remarkable double agents Britain has ever produced. Inside the traitor was a man of loyalty; inside the villain was a hero. The problem for Chapman, his spymasters, and his lovers was to know where one persona ended and the other began.
In 1941, after training as a German spy in occupied France, Chapman was parachuted into Britain with a revolver, a wireless, and a cyanide pill, with orders from the Abwehr to blow up an airplane factory. Instead, he contacted MI5, the British Secret Service. For the next four years, Chapman worked as a double agent, a lone British spy at the heart of the German Secret Service who at one time volunteered to assassinate Hitler for his countrymen. Crisscrossing Europe under different names, all the while weaving plans, spreading disinformation, and, miraculously, keeping his stories straight under intense interrogation, he even managed to gain some profit and seduce beautiful women along the way.
The Nazis feted Chapman as a hero and awarded him the Iron Cross. In Britain, he was pardoned for his crimes, becoming the only wartime agent to be thus rewarded. Both countries provided for the mother of his child and his mistress. Sixty years after the end of the war, and ten years after Chapmans death, MI5 has now declassified all of Chapmans files, releasing more than 1,800 pages of top secret material and allowing the full story of Agent Zigzag to be told for the first time.
A gripping story of loyalty, love, and treachery, Agent Zigzag offers a unique glimpse into the psychology of espionage, with its thin and shifting line between fidelity and betrayal.
Review
"Agent Zigzag is a true-history thriller, a real spy story superbly written. It belongs to my favorite genre: the 'Friday night book' start it then, because you will want to stay with it all weekend." Alan Furst
Review
"One of the most extraordinary stories of the Second World War." William Boyd, The Sunday Telegraph
Review
"This is the most amazing book, full of fascinating and hair-raising true-life adventures...and beautifully told. For anyone interested in the Second World War, spying, romance, skullduggery or the hidden chambers of the human mind, it would be impossible to recommend it too highly." The Mail on Sunday
Review
"Speaking as a former MI6 officer, take it from me: there are very few books which give you a genuine picture of what it feels like to be a spy. This is one....an enthralling war story." The Daily Express
Review
"Macintyre tells Chapman's tale in a perfect pitch: with the Boys' Own thrills of Rider Haggard, the verve of George MacDonald Fraser and Carl Hiassen's mordant humor....Hugely entertaining." The [London] Observer
Review
"If Ben Macintyre had presented this story as a novel, it would have been denounced as far too unlikely: yet every word of it is true. Moreover he has that enviable gift, the inability to write a dull sentence. An enthralling book results from the opening up of once deadly secret files." The Spectator
Review
"Splendidly vivid....There are endless delightful twists to the tale." Max Hastings, The [London] Sunday Times
Review
"Ben Macintyre's rollicking, thriller-paced account...is a Boy's Own adventure par excellence and a gripping psychological case study of a man 'torn between patriotism and egotism.'" Time Out
Review
"Macintyre succeeds in bringing Chapman vividly to life. It is unlikely that a more engaging study of espionage and deception will be published this year." The Times
Review
"Who can account for the popularity of the spy thriller? I can't, and I've read dozens of them, fiction and nonfiction. But I've never read a better true spy tale than Agent Zigzag, the story of Eddie Chapman, a charming British criminal who metamorphosed into one of the most brilliant double agents ever run by the Brits." Mary Ann Gwinn, The Seattle Times (read the entire Seattle Times review)
Synopsis
The little known World War II espionage story of Spaniard Juan Pujol, who convinced Hitler's Abwehr that he had a ring of spiesand#160;in Britain, only to pull off one of the greatest feats of any double agent:and#160;he fooled Hitler and disguised D-Day.
Synopsis
Were the D-Day landings saved from failure because of a lone secret agent?Agent Garbo tells the astonishing story of a self-made secret agent who matched wits with the best minds of the Third Reich and#8212; and won. Juan Pujol was a nobody, a Barcelona poultry farmer determined to oppose the Nazis. Using only his gift for daring falsehoods, Pujol became Germanyand#8217;s most valued agent and#8212; or double agent: it took four tries before the British believed he was really on the Alliesand#8217; side.
In the guise of Garbo, Pujol turned in a masterpiece of deception worthy of his big-screen namesake. He created an imaginary million-man army, invented armadas out of thin air, and brought a vast network of fictional subagents whirring to life. His unwitting German handlers believed every word, and banked on Garboand#8217;s lies as their only source of espionage within Great Britain.
For his greatest performance, Pujol had to convince the German High Command that the D-Day invasion of Normandy was a feint and the real attack was aimed at Calais. The Nazis bought it, turning the tide of battle at the crucial moment.
Based on years of archival research and interviews with Pujoland#8217;s family, Agent Garbo is a true-life thriller set in the shadow world of espionage and deception.
About the Author
STEPHAN TALTY is a widely published journalist who has contributed to the New York Times Magazine, GQ, Menand#8217;s Journal, Time Out New York, Details, and many other publications. He is the author of Escape from the Land of Snows, the best-selling Empire of Blue Water, The Illustrious Dead, and Mulatto America.
Table of Contents
Cast of Charactersand#8195;vii
Introductionand#8195;ix
PART I: THE MAKING OF A SPY
1. Tom Mix in Barcelonaand#8195;3
2. The Training Groundand#8195;11
3. Araceliand#8195;22
4. The White Cityand#8195;35
5. The Gameand#8195;43
6. The Snakepitand#8195;55
PART II: GARBOand#8217;S RISE
7. A Fresh Riot of Ideasand#8195;65
8. The Systemand#8195;81
9. The Debutand#8195;91
10. The Blacks and the Santa Clausesand#8195;98
11. The Rehearsaland#8195;109
PART III: THE FAR SHORE
12. The Dry Runand#8195;123
13. An Intimate Deceptionand#8195;132
14. Haywireand#8195;141
15. The Interloperand#8195;153
16. The Ghost Armyand#8195;167
17. The Backdropand#8195;174
18. The Buildupand#8195;186
19. The Prisonerand#8195;197
20. The Hoursand#8195;207
21. The Weaponand#8195;223
PART IV: BREAKOFF
22. The Endand#8195;235
23. The Returnand#8195;241
Appendix A: Organizationsand#8195;253
Appendix B: The Garbo Networkand#8195;255
Notesand#8195;257
Bibliographyand#8195;281
Acknowledgmentsand#8195;285
Indexand#8195;287