Papa Spy: Love, Faith, and Betrayal in Wartime Spain - Hardcover

Burns, Jimmy

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0802717969 ISBN 13: 9780802717962

Publisher: Walker Books, 2009

Synopsis

A true story of espionage with a plot worthy of John le Carré.

With the declaration of war in 1939, dashing young publisher, Tom Burns, left his business for the Ministry of Information, the propaganda arm of the British secret services, and found himself in Madrid as press attaché at the British embassy. Spurred on by his deep love of Spain, he threw himself into the propaganda war against the Nazis, who broadcast freely to the Spanish press. Spain was officially "nonbelligerent" during the war. But nonbelligerent doesn't mean unimportant: Spain held Gibraltar, and so controlled the western Mediterranean. Germany desperately wanted Gibraltar and the Mediterranean for itself, and it was the responsibility of Tom Burns and the rest of the British Ministry of Information to do everything in their power to keep that from happening.

Executing that simple objective became complicated as Burns found he was making enemies in England, not least among them Kim Philby and members of MI 6. In Papa Spy, Jimmy Burns tells the extraordinary story of how his father overcame the odds, helped carry out the decoy plot called "The Man Who Never Was," arranged what turned out to be actor Leslie Howard's fatal propaganda trip to Portugal and Spain, and remained true to his faith while loyally serving his country.

About this title

About the Author

Jimmy Burns writes for the Financial Times. Among his previous books are The Land That Lost Its Heroes (Somerset Maugham nonfiction prize, 1987), Hand of God: The Life of Diego Maradona, and Barça: A People's Passion.

From Booklist

The author’s father served the British cause in World War II as a press attaché at the Madrid embassy, a role Burns fils researched for this book. Certain credentials commended Burns père to the diplomatic post: a Catholic, he was a socially connected editor who supported the Nationalists in the Spanish civil war. As he looked into his father’s activities in Spain, Burns discovered two original sources: correspondence with a love interest, Ann Bowes-Lyon, a cousin of the queen, and an MI5 dossier—the counterintelligence service suspected him of being too pro-Franco and possibly a German agent. Integrated with extant histories, Burns’ new information depicts a historical setting of the kind of intrigue that tempts spy novelists such as Alan Furst. In the real secret war with the Nazis, Thomas Burns’ efforts apparently were not confined to propaganda and press relations. Recounting his father’s extracurricular work, the author levelly assesses their results without overrating their effect on Britain’s strategic aim of keeping Spain neutral. The audience for WWII espionage should warm to Burns’ tale. --Gilbert Taylor

About this edition

• Publisher: Walker Books
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0802717969
• ISBN 13: 9780802717962
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 416