A 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' John Banville, 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, charmer and traitor, 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, class and conscience, 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 is perhaps the last great secret of the Cold War.
Review
An engaging book on a tantalising and ultimately tragic subject, If it starts as a study of friendship, it ends as an indictment - Philip Hensher, Spectator
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 - Daily Mail, Books of the Week
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 ***** - Daily Express
Illuminating, gripping and moving … What Macin