A Spy Among Friends
- Author Ben Macintyre
- Narrator Ben MacIntyre
- Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing
- Publish Date 6 June 2024
- Run Time 13 hours and 27 minutes
- Format Audio
- Genre Biography: historical, political and military, Espionage and secret services, History, Military history.
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What to expect
Bloomsbury presents A Spy Among Friends written and read by Ben Macintyre.
THE SUNDAY TIMES No. 1 BESTSELLER
WITH AN AFTERWORD BY JOHN LE CARRÉ
'Riveting, astounding . . . An unputdownable postwar thriller' Observer
'Irresistibly readable' Sunday Times
'Worthy of John le Carré at his best' Guardian
'Hugely engrossing . . . Both authoritative and enthralling' William Boyd
________________
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.
THE SUNDAY TIMES No. 1 BESTSELLER
WITH AN AFTERWORD BY JOHN LE CARRÉ
'Riveting, astounding . . . An unputdownable postwar thriller' Observer
'Irresistibly readable' Sunday Times
'Worthy of John le Carré at his best' Guardian
'Hugely engrossing . . . Both authoritative and enthralling' William Boyd
________________
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.
Critics Review
An engaging book on a tantalising and ultimately tragic subject, If it starts as a study of friendship, it ends as an indictment
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
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 *****
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
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
Whereas Milne thinks his friend betrayed his country because he genuinely believed in communism, Macintyre’s explanation is more intriguing and more convincing
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
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 *****
The life of Cambridge spy Kim Philby is analysed in this irresistibly readable study
Swiftly paced, beautifully written … It is the small, human details that makes this grim, beguiling story so intoxicating
A hugely engrossing contribution to Philby lore ... Such a summary does no justice to Macintyre’s marvellously shrewd and detailed account of Philby’s nefarious career. It is both authoritative and enthralling ... One of the pleasures of writing about espionage is that you are almost licensed to concoct your own conspiracy theories; all that’s demanded is plausibility, and Elliott and Macintyre’s gloss on events is highly plausible
He does not let his readers down here … The story has been told before, but Macintyre’s ability to unbundle intelligence acronyms is unrivalled … He has thrown a detailed and always entertaining light on the practices and culture of the 20th-century British intelligence through the lens of its most ignominious episode
Engaging and atmospheric
Macintyre writes with the diligence and insight of a journalist, and the panache of a born storyteller … Worthy of John le Carré at his best
Fascinating … The real tragedy, as this book so masterfully reveals, is that Philby’s charm and easy manner made fools of so many *****
The doomed relationship between Philby and Elliott makes this old tale of treason seem new enough
Riveting and tragic. I read Macintyre’s book in one sitting, and found it impossible to put down
A book I could give to anybody
The consistently readable Ben Macintyre shines a penetrating light on the friendship between Kim Philby, one of the most notorious traitors in British history, and fellow MI6 spy Nicholas Elliott
No one writes so well on subterfuge and deceit as Macintyre
A rollicking book. Mr Macintyre is full of pep and never falters in the head-long rush of his narrative
An extraordinary book … The focus on friendship brings an intimacy here that is missing from the cardboard stereotypes that populate conventional espionage histories and spy novels
There is nobody to beat Ben Macintyre for a knowledge of espionage … A Spy Among Friends is, like all of Macintyre’s work, a real gem
The vicarious experience of the seedy, hard-drinking glamour of old-school espionage is thrilling
An unputdownable thriller, and the impeccably researched truth
Terrific … Macintyre’s gift is to write well-researched non-fiction as though it was popular fiction, and here he excels himself with an almost unbelievable tale of establishment complacency and incompetence
One of the peculiar pleasures involved in reading a biography of Kim Philby is that of spying on the spy … A Spy Among Friends manages to convey Philby’s satanic charm
This account of the high-level British spymaster who turned out to be a Russian mole reads like John le Carré but is a solidly researched true story
Macintyre is a gifted storyteller
Hard to put down … A great book that lives up to the reputation it has acquired
Conscious that Philby’s story has been told many times before, Macintyre tries to find a new angle by interweaving it with that of Nicholas Elliott, probably Philby’s closest friend in MI6. This has the merit of creating a rare sense of momentum, as we build towards their final confrontation in Beirut
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