A Divided Life: A Personal Portrait of the Spy Donald Maclean

A colleague of Donald MacLean at Cambridge and in the Foreign Office offers insights into the life of the double agent, exploring his motivations and the damage he did to America

Both a revealing, intimate look at the "Cambridge Comintern" and a riveting portrait of a reluctant spy, this evenhanded biography of double-agent Donald Maclean sets him apart from Kim Philby, Guy Burgess, Anthony Blunt and others in the circle. According to Cecil, a British diplomat who attended Cambridge with Maclean and served with him in various posts, the tall, handsome, soft-spoken spy had great distaste for his duplicitous lifestyle, and numbed his guilt with alcohol. A dedicated Marxist and left-wing student activist, Maclean is shown rebelling against his stern Presbyterian father and landing in the Kremlin's lap. After helping his Soviet masters by spying in London, Cairo and Washington, Maclean defected to the U.S.S.R. in 1951. His last 31 years, spent in his adopted communist haven, were a letdown, maintains Cecil: his wife had an affair with Philby, then emigrated to the U.S.; his three children spurned Russia and made their homes in the West; and his faith in communism was shaken by Soviet reality. Photos.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Cecil's stunningly personal account of Donald Maclean, one of the famous "Cambridge spies," is an invaluable firsthand contribution to this intricate tale. Cecil worked with Maclean and fellow conspirator Anthony Burgess in the British Foreign Office, and this book, rich with the history that Cecil shared with Maclean, shines with his unique perspective. The author's probing psychological, sociological, and professional analysis--seeded with poetry, quotes from Maclean's correspondence, and even a Jungian diagnosis--lead the reader back through a world that makes the current generation of spies seem bromidic and shallow. Highly recommended for the informed layperson.
- John Yurechko, Georgetown Univ., Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.