A Spy Named Orphan: The Soviet Agent Who Stole the West's Greatest Secrets

Philipps, Roland

ISBN 10: 0393356965 / ISBN 13: 9780393356960

Published by W. W. Norton & Company, 2019

About this Item

Book is in very good condition and may include minimal underlining highlighting. The book can also include "From the library of" labels. May not contain miscellaneous items toys, dvds, etc. . We offer 100% money back guarantee and 24 7 customer service.

Seller Inventory # ZBV.0393356965.VG

Bibliographic Details

• Title: A Spy Named Orphan: The Soviet Agent Who Stole the West's Greatest Secrets
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication Date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0393356965
• ISBN 13: 9780393356960
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: very_good

About this title

Synopsis

"[A] lively and beautifully engineered biography." ―John Banville, New York Review of Books

Donald Maclean was one of the most treacherous spies of the Cold War era, a member of the infamous "Cambridge Five" spy ring, yet the extent of this shrewd, secretive man’s betrayal has never fully been explored. Drawing on formerly classified files, A Spy Named Orphan documents the extraordinary story of a model diplomat leading a chilling double-life until his exposure and defection to the USSR.

Philipps describes a man prone to alcoholic rages, who rose through the ranks of the British Foreign Office while secretly transmitting through his Soviet handlers reams of diplomatic and military intelligence on the atom bomb and the shape of the postwar world. A mesmerizing tale of blind faith and fierce loyalty alongside dangerous duplicity and human vulnerability, Philipps’s narrative will stand as the definitive account of the man codenamed "Orphan."

8 pages of photgraphs

About the Author

Roland Philipps is the grandson of Roger Makins, the last man from the Foreign Office to see Donald Maclean before his escape to the Soviet Union. He was publishing director of Hodder & Stoughton and Macmillan, London, and managing director of John Murray Publishers. He lives in London.