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A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal

by Ben Macintyre
A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal

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  • Synopses & Reviews

ISBN13: 9780804136655
ISBN10: 0804136653
Condition: Standard


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Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments

Master storyteller Ben Macintyre's most ambitious work to date brings to life the twentieth century's greatest spy story.

Kim Philby was the greatest spy in history, a brilliant and charming man who rose to head Britain's counterintelligence against the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War — while he was secretly working for the enemy. And nobody thought he knew Philby like Nicholas Elliott, Philby's best friend and fellow officer in MI6. The two men had gone to the same schools, belonged to the same exclusive clubs, grown close through the crucible of wartime intelligence work and long nights of drink and revelry. It was madness for one to think the other might be a communist spy, bent on subverting Western values and the power of the free world.

But Philby was secretly betraying his friend. Every word Elliott breathed to Philby was transmitted back to Moscow — and not just Elliott's words, for in America, Philby had made another powerful friend: James Jesus Angleton, the crafty, paranoid head of CIA counterintelligence. Angleton's and Elliott's unwitting disclosures helped Philby sink almost every important Anglo-American spy operation for twenty years, leading countless operatives to their doom. Even as the web of suspicion closed around him, and Philby was driven to greater lies to protect his cover, his two friends never abandoned him — until it was too late. The stunning truth of his betrayal would have devastating consequences on the two men who thought they knew him best, and on the intelligence services he left crippled in his wake.

Told with heart-pounding suspense and keen psychological insight, and based on personal papers and never-before-seen British intelligence files, A Spy Among Friends is Ben Macintyre's best book yet, a high-water mark in Cold War history telling.

Review

"Macintyre has produced more than just a spy story. He has written a narrative about that most complex of topics, friendship....When devouring this thriller, I had to keep reminding myself it was not a novel. It reads like a story by Graham Greene, Ian Fleming, or John Le Carré, leavened with a dollop of P.G. Wodehouse...[Macintyre] takes a fresh look at the grandest espionage drama of our era." Walter Isaacson, New York Times Book Review

Review

"Superb....Riveting reading." Malcolm Gladwell, The New Yorker

Review

"Macintyre does here what he does best — tell a heck of a good story. A Spy Among Friends is hands down the most entertaining book I've reviewed this year." Boston Globe

Review

"Macintyre is a superb writer, with an eye for the telling detail as fine as any novelist's...A Spy Among Friends is as suspenseful as any novel, too, as the clues tighten around Philby's guilt." Dallas Morning News

Review

"By now, the story of British double agent Harold 'Kim' Philby may be the most familiar spy yarn ever, fodder for whole libraries of histories, personal memoirs and novels. But Ben Macintyre manages to retell it in a way that makes Philby's destructive genius fresh and horridly fascinating." David Ignatius, Washington Post

Review

"A Spy Among Friends is a rollicking book. Mr. Macintyre is full of pep and never falters in the headlong rush of his narrative." Wall Street Journal

Review

"Vivid and fascinating...[Macintyre] succeeds admirably." Newsday

Review

"A crisply written tale of a classic intelligence case that remains relevant more than 50 years later." USA Today

Review

"Excellent...I was thoroughly engrossed in this book, beginning to end. It has all the suspense of a good spy novel, and its characters are a complex mix of charm, eccentricity, intelligence and wit. And it offers a great — and mostly troubling — insight into the behind-the-scenes workings of those we entrust with the most important of our political and military secrets." The Huffington Post

Review

"Working with colorful characters and an anything-can-happen attitude, Macintyre builds up a picture of an intelligence community chock-full of intrigue and betrayal, in which Philby was the undisputed king of lies...Entertaining and lively, Macintyre's account makes the best fictional thrillers seem tame." Publishers Weekly (starred)

Review

"Gripping and as well-crafted as an episode of Smiley's People, full of cynical inevitability, secrets, lashings of whiskey and corpses." Kirkus Reviews (starred)

Review

"Ben Macintyre (Double Cross) offers a fresh look at master double agent Kim Philby....Fans of James Bond will enjoy this look into the era that inspired Ian Fleming's novels, but any suspense-loving student of human nature will be shocked and thrilled by this true narrative of deceit." Shelf Awareness (starred)

Synopsis

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLSER - The true story of Kim Philby, the Cold War's most infamous spy, from the master espionage writer and author of The Spy and the Traitor.

Who was Kim Philby? Those closest to him--like his fellow MI6 officer and best friend since childhood, Nicholas Elliot, and the CIA's head of counterintelligence, James Jesus Angleton--knew him as a loyal confidant and an unshakeable patriot. Philby was a brilliant and charming man who rose to head Britain's counterintelligence against the Soviet Union. Together with Elliott and Angleton he stood on the front lines of the Cold War, holding Communism at bay. But he was secretly betraying them both: He was working for the Russians the entire time.

Every word uttered in confidence to Philby by his colleagues in the West made its way to Moscow, leading countless missions to their doom and subverting American and British attempts to subdue the Soviet threat. So how was this cunning double-agent finally exposed? In A Spy Among Friends, Ben Macintyre expertly weaves the heart-pounding tale of how Philby almost got away with it all--and what happened when he was finally unmasked.

Based on personal papers and never-before-seen British intelligence files, this is Ben Macintyre's epic telling of one of the greatest spy stories ever, a Cold War history that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Synopsis

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - The epic true story of Kim Philby, the Cold War's most infamous spy, from the "master storyteller" (San Francisco Chronicle) and author of Prisoners of the Castle.

" A Spy Among Friends] reads like a story by Graham Greene, Ian Fleming, or John le Carr , leavened with a dollop of P. G. Wodehouse."--Walter Isaacson, New York Times Book Review

Who was Kim Philby? Those closest to him--like his fellow MI6 officer and best friend since childhood, Nicholas Elliot, and the CIA's head of counterintelligence, James Jesus Angleton--knew him as a loyal confidant and an unshakeable patriot. Philby was a brilliant and charming man who rose to head Britain's counterintelligence against the Soviet Union. Together with Elliott and Angleton he stood on the front lines of the Cold War, holding Communism at bay. But he was secretly betraying them both: He was working for the Russians the entire time.

Every word uttered in confidence to Philby made its way to Moscow, sinking almost every important Anglo-American spy operation for twenty years and costing hundreds of lives. So how was this cunning double-agent finally exposed? In A Spy Among Friends, Ben Macintyre expertly weaves the heart-pounding tale of how Philby almost got away with it all--and what happened when he was finally unmasked.

Based on personal papers and never-before-seen British intelligence files and told with heart-pounding suspense and keen psychological insight, A Spy Among Friends is a fascinating portrait of a Cold War spy and the countrymen who remained willfully blind to his treachery.

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, Entertainment Weekly, Shelf Awareness


About the Author

BEN MACINTYRE is writer-at-large and associate editor of the Times of London. He is the author of Agent Zigzag, The Man Who Would Be King, The Englishman's Daughter, The Napoleon of Crime, and Forgotten Fatherland. He lives in London with his wife, the novelist Kate Muir, and their three children.

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`
Christopher Spears , May 30, 2015 (view all comments by Christopher Spears)
I couldn't put it down. This book is as good as Le Carre at his best except that it really happened! Macintyre gives the Philby case a very human touch by focusing on Philby's friendship with Nicholas Elliot, a high ranking member of M16, and James Jesus Angleton, a high ranking member of the CIA. Friendships that Philby ruthlessly and brutally betrayed.

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Product Details

ISBN:
9780804136655
Binding:
Trade Paperback
Publication date:
05/12/2015
Publisher:
BANTAM DOUBLEDAY DELL
Pages:
384
Height:
1.20IN
Width:
5.20IN
Thickness:
1.00
Illustration:
Yes
Author:
Ben Macintyre
Subject:
Crime - True Crime
Subject:
World History-1650 to Present

Ships free on qualified orders.
Add to Cart
$10.95
List Price:$18.00
Used Trade Paperback
Ships in 1 to 3 days
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More copies of this ISBN

  • New, Trade Paperback, $18.00
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