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    Stalin's Englishman: Guy Burgess, the Cold War, and the Cambridge Spy Ring
    Stalin's Englishman: Guy Burgess, the Cold War, and the Cambridge Spy Ring
    Stalin's Englishman: Guy Burgess, the Cold War, and the Cambridge Spy Ring
    Audiobook14 hours

    Stalin's Englishman: Guy Burgess, the Cold War, and the Cambridge Spy Ring

    Written by Andrew Lownie

    Narrated by Steven Crossley

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Guy Burgess was the most important, complex, and fascinating of "The Cambridge Spies"-Maclean, Philby, Blunt-brilliant young men recruited in the 1930s to betray their country to the Soviet Union. An engaging and charming companion to many, an unappealing, utterly ruthless manipulator to others, Burgess rose through academia, the BBC, the Foreign Office, MI5 and MI6, gaining access to thousands of highly sensitive secret documents which he passed to his Russian handlers.

    In this first full biography, Andrew Lownie shows us how even Burgess's chaotic personal life did nothing to stop his penetration and betrayal of the British Intelligence Service. Even when he was under suspicion, the fabled charm which had enabled many close personal relationships with influential Establishment figures (including Winston Churchill) prevented his exposure as a spy for many years.

    Through interviews with more than a hundred people who knew Burgess personally, many of whom have never spoken about him before, and the discovery of hitherto secret files, Stalin's Englishman brilliantly unravels the many lives of Guy Burgess in all their intriguing, chilling, colorful, tragi-comic wonder.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateJan 31, 2017
    ISBN9781515987277
    Stalin's Englishman: Guy Burgess, the Cold War, and the Cambridge Spy Ring
    Author

    Andrew Lownie

    Andrew Lownie was educated at Asheville School, North Carolina, and the universities of Cambridge and Edinburgh, where he took his doctorate. He was part of the six man team who set up the Spy Museum in Washington, DC, and he sits on the Advisory Committee of Biographers International Organization. He is the author of Stalin’s Englishman (St Martin’s Press) and The Mountbattens (Pegasus Books) and is a reviewer for the Wall Street Journal.

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    Reviews for Stalin's Englishman

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    • 5/5
      Like many people, I grew up thinking that the West had the best secret agents — James Bond being the most famous (fictional) example. It was only later on that I discovered the incredible successes of Soviet spies, most famously Kim Philby. It turns out that in many ways, Guy Burgess, a friend of Philby’s and a fellow member of the “Cambridge 5” spy ring, may have been even more important.For years, Burgess operated at the very heart of the British government, including a stint in its Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). A loyal Communist, he handed over thousands of top secret documents to his Soviet handlers. In 1951, when the cover of one his colleagues was about to be blown, he decided — seemingly on a whim — to end a very successful career as a spy and rushed off to Moscow. And there he lived for another decade until he died, desperately missing the life he left behind in England, but being provided with regular hampers from London’s Fortnum and Mason as well as clothing from exclusive shops on Jermyn Street. British visitors to Moscow often agreed to meet him, including Graham Greene on one occasion.Andrew Lownie spent some thirty years researching this book, and it shows. It is a brilliant, detailed account of a strangely interesting — and much-loved — man. Lownie raises the question of how it was possible for Burgess (and for that matter, Philby and the others) to loyally support Stalin after the revelations about the Moscow trials and the 1939 Hitler-Stalin pact. Somehow, they all managed to square that circle.Highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      A very thorough study of the life of Guy Burgess and a history of the whole Cambridge spies scandal. It's easy to see how these upper class intellectuals were attracted to communism in the 1930s when it represented the only opposition to the March of fascism. For the likes of Burgess, there was also the added attraction of a feeling of importance and influence. What is surprising is how little damage their passing of 'secret' documents to the Soviets actually did, mainly because their Russian handlers felt that the likes of Guy Burgess were untrustworthy due to their debauched and immoral life styles.
      What is almost impossible to understand, despite Adrew Lownie's wealth of first hand evidence from his many friends and acquaintances, is how such a seemingly unpleasant and, at times, vicious character could have inspired such loyalty and had so many lovers. Apart from his alcoholism, every description of him emphasises his dirtiness (his grubby fingernails are constantly mentioned).
      The one thing I find missing in the story is any evidence of how Burgess and his fellow communists/socialists felt about the huge changes in post-war British society instigated by the new Labour government. Seemingly, it made no difference to them although the country had become a very different place.
      For those who would argue that such traitors shouldn't have been allowed to get away with it and, instead, through many books, plays and films, have become romanticised, then reading the latter part of this book describing Burgess's miserable years in Russia, show that, while they escaped trial and imprisonment, they effectively punished themselves.