a spy among friends ben macintyre review

Elliott meanwhile, started out managing counter-intelligence operations for Holland, later being transferred to the MI6 office in Turkey, another spy hotbed.

During the next two years, North Africa was added to the territory he managed and he became the head of Section V, the counter-intelligence section. By 1941, he found himself in charge of counter-intelligence operations focused on the neutral, yet hotbed for espionage, nations of Spain and Portugal.

Initially during World War II, Philby trained Special Operations Executive (SOE) operatives in clandestine propaganda. Also discussed in briefer details were the rest of the Cambridge Five, with a focus on Guy Burgess, and how they made their way into MI5, MI6, or the Foreign Office and Philby’s American friend and counterpart, James Angleton. He also struck up a friendship with Nicholas Elliott, a fellow agent who was also on the fast track at MI6. In the years that followed, he was given increasing roles of responsibility within MI6 while still serving as a double agent. When World War II began, Philby became an MI6 officer, a role that allowed him to feed British intelligence to the Soviets. The majority of the book covers the 1930s to the 1960s. Philby became sympathetic to the communist cause while attending Cambridge and was recruited to serve as a Soviet spy. The book opens by providing a background on Kim Philby and several of his colleagues before World War II broke out. When I found out this book was coming out, I knew I had to read it. I first read about Kim Philby briefly in MacIntyre’s Double Cross, his book on the Double Cross operation in World War II. Includes afterwards written by John Le Carr é. A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal by Ben MacIntyre

A spy among friends ben macintyre review