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    A Spy Among Friends: Now a major ITV series starring Damian Lewis and Guy Pearce
    Unavailable
    A Spy Among Friends: Now a major ITV series starring Damian Lewis and Guy Pearce
    Unavailable
    A Spy Among Friends: Now a major ITV series starring Damian Lewis and Guy Pearce
    Ebook493 pages9 hours

    A Spy Among Friends: Now a major ITV series starring Damian Lewis and Guy Pearce

    By Ben Macintyre

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    **NOW A MAJOR SIX-PART SERIES ON ITVX, STARRING DAMIAN LEWIS AND GUY PEARCE**

    A SUNDAY TIMES No. 1 BESTSELLER
    WITH AN AFTERWORD BY JOHN LE CARR    É

    'Riveting, astounding ... An unputdownable postwar thriller'     Observer
    'Irresistibly readable'     Sunday Times
    'Worthy of John le Carré at his best' Guardian
    'Hugely engrossing ... Both authoritative and enthralling' William Boyd
    ________________
    Kim Philby was the most notorious British defector and Soviet mole in history. Agent, double agent, charmer and traitor, he betrayed every secret of Allied operations to the Russians in the early years of the Cold War. In the aftermath of the Second World War, Philby, Nicholas Elliott and James Jesus Angleton were rising stars in the intelligence world and shared every secret. Elliott and Angleton thought they knew Philby better than anyone - and then discovered they had not known him at all.

    This is a story of loyalty, trust and treachery, class and conscience, of male friendships forged, and then systematically betrayed. With access to newly released MI5 files and previously unseen papers, A Spy Among Friends unlocks what is perhaps the last great secret of the Cold War.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBloomsbury Publishing
    Release dateMar 3, 2014
    ISBN9781408851746
    Unavailable
    A Spy Among Friends: Now a major ITV series starring Damian Lewis and Guy Pearce
    Author

    Ben Macintyre

    Ben MacIntyre is the author of ‘Forgotten Fatherland’, published by Macmillan to great acclaim. He is Paris correspondent on ‘The Times’.

    Read more from Ben Macintyre

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    Reviews for A Spy Among Friends

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    • 5/5
      Kim Philby looked like the perfect spy for MI6 all through the second World War and into the Cold War, but what he hid from friends such as Nicholas Elliott and James Angleton was that he was actually a Soviet spy - and a very good one at that.This true story reads like a novel, and what sets it apart from the many spy accounts, including of Philby himself, is Macintyre's focus on Philby's friendships, particular with Elliott who grew up in with a similar background and Angleton, Philby's protegee American who worked for the CIA. This was a fascinating account showing how impossible it is to truly know another person.
    • 4/5
      Kim Philby was precisely the kind of traitor to country that Dante had in mind when he reserved the ninth and lowest circle of hell for traitors. He so thoroughly undermined the efforts of the intelligence activities of his native Britain, and later the US, that one observer commented that the west would have arguably been better off doing nothing. His treachery send hundreds, if not thousands, of men and women to their deaths. He lied to his closest friends and to his wives about who he really was.I had heard of Philby years ago, when I read about spies and espionage during the cold war. I had heard of Philby, Burgess and MacLean, but this book brought me to see him up close. I can’t say that I felt like I knew him, because it was clear that even his most intimate and longest-suffering friends never really knew him.MacIntyre, who wrote a number of other historical books on spies and espionage, including the brilliant Operation Mincemeat, takes a very personal perspective in this book. He conveys the story of Philby largely through the eyes of Philby’s close friend, Nick Elliott. This personal view makes Philby’s betrayal of his country and countrymen even more dramatic because we see the impact it has on his closest friends.There is certainly no attempt to defend Philby or to find some kind of misplaced nobility in his commitment to the communist cause. He isn’t actively demonized either, but rather, MacIntyre lets the reader reach his own conclusion.One feature of British class life that really stood out to me as an American was the notion the Philby and the others were somehow beyond suspicion because of their social class and Oxbridge education. Certainly, in the intelligence world, you can’t be so paranoid that you trust no one, but at the same time, when evidence starts to mount, a thorough, unbiased investigation is clearly warranted. Because of the kid gloves used on Philby, he was able to continue betraying his country, long after he should have been stopped.I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys cold war history, or intelligence service histories. Look for other Ben MacIntyre titles at the same time--he’s a great storyteller. Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher with the expectation I would provide an objective review.
    • 5/5
      A Spy among Friends explores the relationship between Kim Philby and “friends”, primarily Nicholas Elliott, but also James Angleton. It’s an insightful tale of friendship and betrayal; loyalty beyond reason and duplicity. Well researched and written, the book is such a fascinating spy thriller, it’s often difficult to remember it's non-fiction. Ian Fleming and Graham Greene, former spies both mentioned in the book, could not have written a more interesting story than this real account of betrayal by a master spy. Highly recommended.
    • 5/5
      Definitely one to file under "the truth is stranger than fiction" Ben McIntyre weaves a compelling story of the career of master spy Kim Philby, with a driving narrative style that puts many a top-rate spy-thriller to shame. Once you get into this account, its difficult to put down (I read it in jut two sittings), as you are drawn in by the characters, the times, the webs of deception and at times the incredulous silliness of some of it. - It was also surprising for a book set in the misty corridors of espionage just how many familiar names and connections cropped up. - Highly recommended.
    • 5/5
      Review is for an advance copy received through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.Very well presented and better than a good mystery for keeping you up at night. The book quickly becomes an absolute page turner! You're not wondering who did it, but when will he ever get caught. A mind blowing piece of history of how seemingly easy a small circle of those who were responsible for so many lives were so thoroughly fooled and manipulated.
    • 5/5
      This is a great spy story that I enjoyed immensely. I knew nothing about this notorious case, so much of the book was new to me. The author, Ben MacIntyre, synthesizes the previous research and memoirs into a readable and lucid espionage story.The focus of the book is Kim Philby and his best friend Nicholas Elliot. Both are products of upper-middle English backgrounds. They both go to prestigious "public" schools, Cambridge, and get their MI-6 jobs through family connections. The main difference between the two is Philby's brief flirtation with left-wing politics was really a life-long dedication to communism. Kim's commitment will cause him to betray family, friends, and his country. This commitment also directly causes the deaths of hundreds. Fellow members of MI-6 as well as his friends found it impossible to believe that a man of Philby's background could be a communist at heart. Even his Soviet handlers at some points doubted that a man so thoroughly English could provide intelligence of such quality. The States may have a problem with racism, but Britain has a class problem. Philby was able to get away with what he did because he wore the right old school tie and drank at the best clubs. Even if you aren't interested in espionage, this is still a fascinating story of a man who betrays everyone around him. I look forward to reading more about this case.
    • 5/5
      A Spy Among Friends is, in the words of the author, "not another biography of Kim Philby," ... "less about politics, ideology and accountability than personality, character, and a very British relationship that has never been explored before." Macintyre notes also that the "book does not purport to be the last word on Kim Philby," but rather "it seeks to tell his story in a different way, through the prism of personal friendship..." and his work succeeds on every possible level: impeccable research, the very-well developed investigation of Kim Philby's dual character, and frankly, despite the fact that it's nonfiction, it reads like a highly-polished, top-tier espionage novel, making it reader-friendly for anyone at all interested in the subject. Macintyre's account brings new life to this very old and well-covered story: he sets Philby's story among friends, most notably Nicholas Elliott of MI6 and James Jesus Angleton (who had met Philby in London at the age of 24, and for whom Philby right away became "an elder-brother figure), who ultimately became an ultra-high ranking member of the CIA. Both men trusted Philby implicitly and both refused to believe that he was a spy the first time he came under suspicion after the defections of Maclean and Burgess. As Macintyre examines the respective careers of the three high-level spies, their social interactions, their proximity to each other over the course of their work as spies, and their ties to upper-class British society with its private clubs, the best schools, etc., he also establishes how easy it was for the trusted Philby to carry away much highly-secret information and hand it over to his Soviet contacts. Macintyre notes that "no one understood the value of friendship better than Kim Philby," and these friendships, all betrayed in the long run, were what Philby counted on -- that, and the upper-class, scandal-hating, old-boy, old-school-tie MI6 organization -- to provide the perfect cover as he also betrayed his country. Throughout this entire book, Macintyre focuses on Philby's "two faces," his dual nature as a "double-sided man," where "One side is open to family and friends and everyone around them,..the other belongs only to himself and his secret work." As much as friends and family thought they knew him, the real truth was that "Philby was spying on everyone, and no one was spying on him, because he fooled them all."Among other things, Macintyre also examines the effects on the friends and family left in the wake of Philby's betrayals, the divisions between MI5 and MI6, and the results in human terms of Philby's work in passing along info to the Soviets. While people might think that they know pretty much all there is to know about Kim Philby, A Spy Among Friends offers a chilling new look at this enigmatic man who used his friends, betrayed his country, sent thousands upon thousands to their deaths and betrayed the people who cared about him the most, all without a small flicker of remorse. It is so very well written, that even though it's a work of nonfiction, the story kept me on edge up until the last minute. In fact, one of the most eye-opening sections of this book is at the point where Philby's been outed in 1963, and Nick, Philby's biggest supporter, takes it upon himself to be the one to get him to confess. If this conversation hadn't been recorded, one would think it was the work of a master spy novelist. Then, when Macintyre has written his last word, the reader comes upon a short, but wonderful afterword by John LeCarré that the reader should absolutely not miss. In fact, anyone who's even remotely interested in Kim Philby, or anyone who has enjoyed Macintyre's previous work should not miss this book -- it is simply stellar.
    • 4/5
      Nicholas Elliot looked up to Kim Philby and was on of his greatest admirers and friends. They were very similar in education and background, they belonged to the same exclusive clubs, and both did wartime intelligence work. Their families spent time together, they met after work to talk shop, and Elliot even dressed like Philby. One would have assumed they were cut from the same cloth, but beneath his hail-fellow-well-met charismatic exterior, Kim Philby was something else: a long-time spy for the Soviets, and Nicholas Elliot had no idea.Ben Macintyre's book carries little new information about the Cambridge spy ring or Kim Philby, but he does approach the subject from a different angle, that of relationships. He writes about what it meant to be a friend in WWII intelligence circles and during the cold war that followed. In particular what it meant to be a British friend in the duplicitous and yet chummy world of MI6. How could Elliot not have known that Philby was a spy? What in the nature of their friendship allowed Philby to deceive him so completely and for such a long time? In the preface, Macintyre acknowledges that he is not breaking new ground with this narrative. Until the M16, CIA, and KGB files are opened, it is impossible to know for sure what happened and who knew what when. Instead, he tries to explore the story in a new way and potentially lead to a more nuanced understanding of the most notorious double agent in Allied history.Well-paced and with colorful anecdotes, the narrative reads like a spy novel. [[Graham Greene]] and [[Ian Fleming]], both spies turned novelists, are quoted in the book, and [[John le Carré]] writes the afterword, so one does feel as though the line between truth and fiction is a bit blurry. I look forward to reading the other WWII spy narratives Ben Macintyre has written, including [Operation Mincemeat], [Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies], and [Agent Zigzag : a true story of Nazi espionage, love, and betrayal].
    • 5/5
      'A Spy Among Friends' is the finely written story of Kim Philby - a truly duplicitous man, on the grandest of scales. Over the years, Philby cultivated many great friendships among the British and American spy agencies, and was by all accounts, a great spy and gentleman. The truth of the man turned out to be much darker: his misguided idealism led him to use these carefully cultured relationships to supply the great common enemy, the Communist Soviets, with vast array of intel, no matter the human cost. An engrossing tale of friendship, backstabbing and the enormous effect one man had on those around him, and history. Macintyre at his best.
    • 5/5
      A fascinating look into double agent Kim Philby, possibly the greatest spy in history. Viewed through the lens of those who knew him best and yet were completely fooled for decades, the author presents the story in nail-biting suspense (even if you're enough of a history buff to know the ending). Philby's impact on Western intelligence was profoundly disturbing, creating major operational failures for the US and UK and their allies and resulting in the deaths of countless agents. How could it happen? The author presents psychological insight into the relationships forged by a master con-man. For anyone who likes 007, this is the real deal, providing an illuminating glimpse into the spy world of the Cold War. Well-written and utterly compelling.
    • 4/5
      This review is for an advance copy received through the Early Reviewers program.A fascinating story of friendship and betrayal, with lots of historical intrigue. Spies, wars, aristocracy, the cold war, international espionage - plenty here to keep the story interesting.I sensed those who were Philby's staunchest defenders really considered themselves to be the smartest guys in the room. So many times I found myself wanting to step into the book and yell at the agents defending Philby, "can you not seriously consider for even one minute this person may be lying to you?!" The story is as much about the foible of self-deception as it is about being lied to by another. Four stars because I felt it could benefit from the inclusion of historical photos, in addition to the one on the cover (although perhaps just not included in the advance copy?). And for at times dragging its feet a bit. But overall a good read.
    • 4/5
      With his latest book, Ben Macintyre turns his attention to what is perhaps the most infamous spy story in history, that of Kim Philby. And while there have been numerous other books written about Philby, including one by the man himself (My Silent War), Macintyre particularly examines how the friendships Philby cultivated during his time working for the British Secret Intelligence Service played such an extraordinary role in allowing him to continue spying for the Soviet Union for so many years. As Macintyre is careful to point out, his research is based on declassified records and first-hand accounts of the events, and those first-hand accounts are often from people who spent their lives fooling others, so the facts of this story may never be fully known. But with that caveat in mind, Macintyre does a masterful job of bringing this story of friendship and betrayal to light. The relationship most closely examined here is between Philby and Nicholas Elliot, Philby's drinking buddy, colleague, and friend. It was Elliot's staunch defense of his friend that in very real ways helped keep Philby active as a double agent for so long. And it was Elliot who felt that betrayal most deeply when it was finally revealed.The first half of this book recounts the early years of friendship between the two men, and yet in some ways, their friendship did not seem to quite take shape on the page until things start to go pear-shaped. This slightness in the narrative didn't seem to come from any lack of research or depth of friendship, but more from circumstances themselves. When most of what happens is "they worked together and drank together a lot", there is often not much else to say. There is rather more of their individual stories to this point. But as the story progresses, and Philby's actions start to catch up with him, the strength of their relationship also becomes much more clear. On the one hand, you can't help but wonder how Elliot and others like him were so taken in by Philby for so long; but on the other, when are any of us more blind than when it comes to those we care about? Macintyre's account is a first-rate look at this tragic, frightening story of friendship and lies.
    • 4/5
      Imagine if the number 2 or 3 person at the CIA was a Soviet agent. Sounds impossible, right? Not so. Kim Philby was responsible for counter-intelligence for MI-6, the home of James Bond and England's equivalent to the CIA. Philby was a life-long communist agent, a mole in Britain's intelligence establishment.A Spy Among Friends, by Ben Macintyre, joins the ranks of many non-fiction books about the master spy Kim Philby (the above line from my review of Knightley’s The Master Spy, so far the definitive biography of Philby). As an avid reader of those, as well as the more fictionalized accounts (including the simply amazing Declare by Tim Powers), I was delighted to receive a copy of A Spy Among Friends from the Library Thing early reviewers program.A Spy Among Friends is a deeply researched and footnoted work that covers the entirety of Philby’s career as a mole or double agent. With so many works about Philby available, including Philby’s own (likely disingenuous) autobiography, why write a new one? Or as a reader, why read this one? What is unique about A Spy Among Friends is the deep focus on the relationship between Philby and Nick Elliott, the MI6 Officer who was life-long friend and protector of Philby, until he ultimately came to believe Philby was a traitor and confronted him for a confession in Beirut (or, allowed him to escape to Moscow as some believe): As night falls, the strange and lethal duel continues, between two men bonded by class, club, and education but divided by ideology; two men of almost identical tastes and upbringing but conflicted loyalties; the most intimate of enemies. To an eavesdropper their conversation appears exquisitely genteel, an ancient English ritual played out in a foreign land; in reality it is an unsparing, bare-knuckle fight, the death throes of a bloodied friendship.Macintyre’s focus on this relationship allows him to provide significantly more color than other works on Philby. He also captures the deep “Englishness” of the entire affair - the social strata, the clubs, the schools, the relationships that would allow Philby to escape unnoticed in plain sight for so many years, because simply nobody would believe a member of their “set” could do such a thing. Even the names ring with “Englishness” - Albania revolution trainer Lieutenant Colonel David de Crespigny Smiley; journalist Hester Harriet Marsden-Smedley; MI6 Chief of Staff Sarah Algeria Marjorie Masse and Ambassador to Turkey Sir Hughe Montgomery Knatchbull-Hugessen. The intelligence community in Britain at the time was intimately intertwined with high society and high achievers and Macintyre captures this well. Flora Soloman was an early friend to Philby and ultimately responsible for outing him; her son went on to found Amnesty International. Elliott knew Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond, and put ashore an operative in full evening dress inside a rubber diving suit, an escapade which more or less made its way into the Bond flick Goldfinger. Both Philby and Elliott knew Graham Greene, the famous novelist. Elliott had drinks in Sierra Leone with Greene, who set up a roving brothel to spy on Germans, and needed contraceptives from Elliott as they were demanded by the brothel workers. Elliott collaborated with CIA agent Miles Copeland, whose son Stewart went on to be the drummer for The Police!Macintyre prefaces his book with the famous E.M. Forster quote: If I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend I hope I should have the guts to betray my country. Such a choice may scandalize the modern reader, and he may stretch out his patriotic hand to the telephone at once and ring up the police. It would not have shocked Dante, though. Dante places Brutus and Cassius in the lowest circle of Hell because they had chosen to betray their friend Julius Caesar rather than their country Rome.Of course the irony in this quote is that a traitor must in the end betray both. Philby betrayed his life-long friend Elliott and (in details I have not seen elsewhere), spied on his father, the noted Arabist St John Philby as well as his wife Aileen. Macintyre captures this well. There are two things I wished for more on. The first was the ultimate subject of Why? Why did Philby become a traitor, and when it was clear that Soviet communism was ultimately evil (which was clear during Philby’s career), did he not abandon his role? A Spy Among Friends covers the relationships that led to his betrayal, but did not seem to build a convincing case for Why he did it. The second was more on Philby’s time in Moscow, which merits only a short chapter (Knightly spends significantly more time on this). Despite these two small areas where I wished for more, A Spy Among Friends gave me more insight into the social conditions around Philby and more color about him than any other book I've read on him, and for that alone it's worth reading, even if you don't know the story. If you know nothing about Philby but want to learn, A Spy Among Friends is easily the most accessible non-fiction book on the subject.
    • 5/5
      Ben Macintyre has long been one of my favorite authors. Through exhaustive research and truly exceptional writing, he brings historical events to life in a way few others can. In "A Spy Among Friends", he once again takes well-documented historical events and shares them with readers in a new way, making history come alive in a way that a dry recitation of dates and place names could never do.Far from the tedious droning account one might expect from a historian, this book is yet another sterling example of Macintyre's journalistic skill. Even if one were quite familiar with the story of Philby's treachery and eventual downfall, it would be impossible to read this book without a sense of eagerness and excitement. From the opening chapter, the reader is drawn into the story, racing through the pages with anticipation to find out what will happen next and when Philby will get his just deserts.I very much enjoyed this book; it has already assumed its position on my shelves beside "Agent Zigzag", "Opertion Mincemeat", and "Double Cross". I have no doubt that I will read and re-read it in the coming years, and with each reading find it just as engrossing as I did the very first time. I would recommend "A Spy Among Friends" even to those who don't typically enjoy non-fiction; it reads far more like a spy novel than a history.Yet another truly excellent offering from Ben Macintyre.
    • 5/5
      I love espionage stories, and this is a beauty of an espionage story. Kim Philby, who spent three decades embedded in MI6 passing the most sensitive of secrets to the Soviets, is arguably the most damaging traitor in the history of British intelligence, and while I've read a number of books in which he's figured prominently, this is the first I've read dedicated primarily to his treachery. The book focuses on the friendship between Philby and fellow MI6 operative Nicholas Elliott, who were the closest of friends from their early years until Elliott, finally convinced of Philby's guilt after decades of denial confronted him in Beirut just before the traitor defected to the Soviet Union, determined to force a confession out of him. It's primarily the story of how Philby used his extraordinary charm and the ties of the old boy network that pervaded British intelligence to avert suspicion from himself, playing the loyal British spy while at the same time cold-bloodedly passing secrets to the Soviets that cost the lives of hundreds of agents. Its evident that McIntyre has considerable admiration for Philby's undoubted skill at espionage, while not stinting on showing the evils that Philby's betrayal wrought on many lives. The story also details the tension between the two halves of British intelligence and the cultural differences between the middle-class MI5, made up of ex-police and soldiers, convinced of Philby's guilt, and the aristocratic & upper-class MI6, composed of Oxbridge graduates and old boys of Britain's top public schools, equally convinced of Philby's innocence and determined to protect him from MI5's probing. There is little analysis of Philby's motivations, and little interest is paid to the origins of Philby's political beliefs at Cambridge, although these have been dealt with at length in numerous other works on the Cambridge spies. Its is largely the story of Philby's life as a spy, and how he interacted with others around him, including friends, fellow spies and his three wives. It's a gripping, fast-moving story, as close to a spy thriller as a true-life story can come. The last third in particular, as suspicions begin to focus on Philby, is particularly absorbing, a tense drama played in the gentrified upper levels of British intelligence. No gunplay, no James Bond derring-do, but every bit as dramatic. Wonderful stuff, a truly great read.
    • 3/5
      A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal by Ben MacIntyreAn enjoyable and educational piece of non-fiction about the Soviet spy who ended up heading Britain’s counterintelligence against the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War. I admit that I came at the period quite ignorantly, never having read any of the great books on British spy history, and virtually everything was new to me, probably to a degree that would appall most people who would choose to read this book. Also, I’ve never read anything else by Ben MacIntyre. Consequently, I can’t review the book in a way that would necessarily be informative to fans of the topic or the author, but just to other people like myself who might blindly stumble in to a copy.The book was immediately engaging, despite my instinctive aversion to the upper-class English male programming and culture which is so important to understanding the story. For the first several chapters I had trouble putting it down. Its hold on me lessened as the book progressed, but never to the point where it wasn’t enjoyable reading. I have a great deal of respect for MacIntyre starting off the book by stating that, as pretty much all sources of information on the topic were classified, edited by people with a great deal to hide, or given by people who lie for a living, he couldn’t say that he was putting down the absolute truth – he was just writing what he believed was likely to be the truth, using his own good judgment and what resources were available. As a non-British, non-history major, I didn't have the names and dates for all the players and major events at my fingertips in the way that the book obviously expected that I would, but I think that’s not likely to be a problem for the intended readership. I found the WWII-era Istanbul section especially fascinating, and was somewhat surprised that the author didn’t even once point out that the reality that Casablanca was based on was even more strange than the movie. Of course, the story at the center of it all is fascinating, and if you’re the sort of person who puts utter faith in friendship and personal loyalty, and would never entertain skepticism about a good friend despite mounting evidence against them, then you should probably read this.
    • 4/5
      Among agents of MI6, the British intelligence service, the best known and most notorious has to be Kim Philby. Born to an aristocratic family, attending top-drawer schools, he was one of the gentleman spies for Britain who continued to move up and up in MI6 in the pre- and post-World War II years. He was, however, a double agent. At a time when he was sending spies into Russia, he was alerting his Russian spymaster of their arrival, sealing their doom. Kim Philby sent hundreds, possibly thousands of agents to their death without a twinge of regret. And he stabbed his friends in the back, all the while maintaining a charming façade, and convincing his friends that he was above reproach. Even when faced with facts that he was a double agent, no one truly believed that a man so much the well-born British gentleman, they remained in denial. I’m not telling anything about his story that most readers won’t already be familiar with. Philby’s story has been told countless times, and he was even the basis for a fictional character, Harry Lime, in the movie The Third Man. But Ben MacIntyre didn’t write the biography of a spy – he wrote the history of a friendship between Philby and Nicholas Elliott, another MI6 agent who did not turn to the dark side.Ben MacIntyre gives just enough of the biographical details to fill in the gaps for readers unfamiliar with Philby’s story. And he adds great detail about the daily lives of the spies in the Cold-War era. Through newly released personal papers and intelligence documents, he fills in the personalities of the two principal characters with psychological insight and understanding. I have read and enjoyed two of Ben MacIntyre’s previous books and look forward to the next. He is terrific at combining detailed research and storytelling for compelling reads. A Spy among Friends is the latest in his string of successes. Review based on Early Reviewer copy provided by the publisher.
    • 5/5
      I picked up this book, and I could not put it down. Someone announcing that I was the $10 million winner in a Publishers Clearing House contest, a wild zebra escaped from the zoo, Elvis back from the dead all could have appeared on my doorstep and I wouldn't even have noticed.Ben Macintyre is in a class of his own: not only is he an engaging writer, he provides brilliant analysis, a great deal of humor and solid historical research - all delivered with incredible suspense, despite the fact that we already know what happened to Kim Philby."A Spy Among Friends" is the story of Kim Philby and Nick Elliott - two friends who chose very different paths. Despite the fact that Philby was a traitor (truly, he could not get lower in my book) we come to understand how so many were fooled by this smooth-talking con artist. He was charming, he seemed so sincere, he seemed utterly trustworthy - especially to Elliot, who stood up for Philby again and again, and was heartbroken when he realized he had been duped. (At the end, you'll find yourself asking: How can anyone really know anyone? Even Philby's wives were fooled.)This book is wonderfully fun and educational reading, filled with characters of all sorts, revelations, history, war, spies and endless surprises. I loved it!
    • 5/5
      The tales of espionage and international intrigue told in film and in the pages of fiction pale in comparison to real world events. Ben Macintyre chronicles in his new book, A Spy Among Friends, the lives and careers of history’s greatest spy and best friend, Kim Philby and Nicholas Elliot. The journeys of these men from the classrooms of Britain’s finest public schools into the covert world of spy craft in the early days of World War II through to a living room in a Beirut apartment building in the zenith of the Cold War while dealing family and politics is a page-turner beyond question.Macintyre shows throughout the book how Philby’s personality and the ‘old boy’s network’ allowed him to last so long as a double agent while also cultivating loyalty from friends in both MI6 and CIA that later supported him when it was believed he was a double agent by investigators. He also explains how Philby’s career path, behind a desk, allowed his access to vast amounts of information to send to his Soviet handlers and to be on the lookout for anything that could expose him. Yet Macintyre’s inclusion of Elliot gives the reader a view into the field work of intelligence during the Second World War and the Cold War throughout Europe and the Middle East. It is in relating Elliot’s career and exploits that one realizes that Hollywood can make good stories, but can’t compare to real life.Throughout the book Macintyre shows the real friendship that Philby and Elliot had until the very end when the former’s betrayal was finally exposed. Throughout the book famous intelligent officers and double agents liter the pages, including Ian Fleming, revealing how many people rubbed shoulders with one another. The only thing the damped the reading of this book was John Le Carre’s afterword which was primarily selections from discussions with Nicholas Elliot who spun is own versions of events in the later years of his life. Save for that tacked on addition, this book is a must read for those interested in Cold War espionage.
    • 5/5
      Kim Philby was truly a spy among friends. A man who operated within MI6 basically for the Soviet Union. As a college student he accepted the tenets of Communism and saw that helping the Soviets in any way that he could as his mission. Whether as a reporter during the Spanish Civil War, as an agent working for MI6, or collecting information from his friends his goal was to give the USSR a leg up on the British actions.The interesting part of the book is the climate that allowed Philby to work for the Soviets secretly without really being questioned. The “good ole boy network” was alive and well in the British secret service. Philby had attended the right schools, was a member of the right club, and he loved cricket, so there was no question that he would do nothing to hurt the empire. A word from an acquaintance was all that was needed instead of a back ground check and even if something did appear from his past it was just the pangs of growing up and nothing serious to worry about. Kim Philby truly had two separate and distinct lives. He worked as a spy for two competing nations and used his family and friends to gather the information he needed for the one. It is hard to believe that he operated from the late 1930s until the 1960s before he was found out. This is a well written account of Philby and those around him. It is also an indictment of the system that allowed him to operate for the Soviets for so long. I have to wonder if he had any friends at all.
    • 5/5
      Like his gripping Agent Zigzag, Ben Macintyre's A Spy Among Friends reads like a fast-paced thriller. This is the story of notorious Kim Philby, a British "old boy" and head of their intelligence service who secretly was a Soviet spy. Macintyre tells it via Philby's nearly lifelong friendship with clueless (or clue-ignoring) and loyal Nicholas Elliott. Elliot was a fellow Cambridge-educated spy who supported Philby in the face of one piece of damning evidence after another. The book is a provocative inquiry into class loyalty, friendship and betrayal - oh, and the spy world during and after WWII.It was easy for Philby to get hired by British intelligence after school, despite his Communist leanings. A high-up official asked Philby’s father about it over drinks at the club. “Oh, that was all schoolboy nonsense,” St. John Philby told him. So the official cleared Philby: “I was asked about him and said I knew his people.” As it turns out, given the proper background, almost any behavior was forgivable. “Even drunken, unhinged knicker shredding, it seemed, was no bar to advancement in the British diplomatic service if one was the ‘right sort.’" Even after Philby is dismissed under heavy suspicion, he gains re-entry. It was "the old boys’ network running at its smoothest: A word in an ear, a nod, a drink with one of the chaps at the club and the machinery kicked in.”Philby was charming, and made many friends in high places. This included the completely bamboozled James Angleton, head of the CIA, who loved to share insider information with Philby over drinks. The result of this and other extracted information was lethal for a dazzling number of agents and operations. Both Elliott and Angleton found the truth of Philby inconceivable until unavoidable. They were far from alone in their infatuation. As one acolyte said, even after learning of Philby's betrayal, "I do not regret knowing him . . . He enriched my world for many years and I owed a lot to him." (This is recounted in John LeCarre's intriguing Afterword).Why did Philby do it? You can read the tea leaves Macintyre provides and reach your own conclusions. Philby professed great loyalty to the Communist cause, but as Macintyre points out, there's no evidence he ever studied it or was filled with concern for the lower classes. His lifestyle would suggest the opposite. And what about his "escape"? Macintyre explores the unusual circumstances surrounding it, and posits a plausible and revealing theory.Those who love spy stories or a rollicking tale of deceit and betrayal won't want to miss this one. It's got a lot for those interested in class behavior and the dynamics of friendship, too. Four and a half stars.
    • 4/5
      Overall a good book about one of the most famous spies ever: Kim Philyby. Excellent narrator (audiobook). Al0.l told in a very casually style from notes about Kim over years. The author exposes the "good old boy" nework - in fact, the very best part of the book s i the interview with Ellitn , at the back of the book. It wil make you write how incompetant they are, and how they basically took the spy business as a joke, ... the jokes, the belly laughs . Nothing seemed to matter more than getting belly laughs. Absolutely disgusting, and yet Elliot goes on and on bout belly laughs. It's on obvious misogynistic condescending humorless romp. I want to be like the Daily Show and say " you know, we can here you " like SNL did for other interviews.Overall : highly recommend.
    • 4/5
      True story, extremely well written. Just wow.

      An unbelievable story, but true. A fantastic read.
    • 4/5
      This is the story of one of the most notorious Soviet spies the world has ever known, Kim Philby. Recruited by Soviet agents before WWII, Philby continued to provide information about Western intelligence activites in London, the Middle East and Washington thru the late 50's. As other spies were captured or defected on both sides, he was able to survive several different investigations where he was suspected of being a double agent, until his friend and fellow British agent confronted him in Beruit in 1963. Seeing the end in sight, Philby then defected to the Soviet Union, avoiding capture.A fascinating story of the history of spycraft during the Cold War, with shades of Ian Fleming and John LeCarre. LeCarre was a field agent in MI5 and MI6 in Germany and was exposed by Kim Philby. Philby the other spies in the Cambridge Ring were inspirations for his seminal novel Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.7/10S: 1/7/15 - F: 1/21/16 (15 Days)
    • 3/5
      I found the book interesting but not gripping. There are no twists and turns, only developments, if that makes any sense. You start the book knowing that Philby was a spy, and by the end you have that knowledge plus all the names and dates. I found it interesting mainly knowing the story made up a lot of source material for 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'.
    • 4/5
      A Spy Among Friends was an interesting read that covers very old ground that has never been fully understood. It still isn't, but it's getting closer.

      The story of Kim Philby's recruitment, subsequent recruitment of several other Cambridge grads, betrayal of his country, and ongoing cat-and-mouse adventures as events and suspicion caught up to him was fascinating, but much of it was conjecture by the author, co-workers, and acquaintances. I realize that's the nature of the beast when dealing with people who lie and keep secrets as part of their job description, but I just didn't get the sense of closure that would've brought this book up a notch. Thanks to the research of the author and the accounts provided by Philby's contacts, we know a lot more about his actions and motivations, but nothing is really nailed down.

      Otherwise, the book is well-written, moves along at a good pace, and most importantly provides a real-world view of how espionage worked back in the Cold War era.
    • 5/5
      If the Kim Philby spying scandal didn't have such serious consequences--not the least of which being that his betrayals undoubtedly led to the death of hundreds by Soviet counterintelligence--it would have many of the elements of a farce.

      For one thing, Philby wasn't the only one spying for the Russians at the highest levels of British intelligence. He was only one of five--all contemporaries who knew each other as students at Cambridge. Yet how did they win their ways into their positions? Their vetting consisted of nothing more than others recommending them because they were of the "right class," had gone to the "right schools," belonged to the "right clubs." MI-6 from the 30s through the 60s was such an insular "old boys club"--quite the opposite of a professional meritocracy--that disaster was bound to happen. The only thing that prevented the Soviets from completely running away with the store is that on the Russian side, Stalin was so paranoid he purged his own intelligence services of some of his best operatives.

      There have been many books written about the Philby debacle, but since MacIntire has no particular axes to grind, he tells the story in such a way that both the tragic and farcical elements come through. In the end, the word "intelligence" used in conjunction with the spying agencies feels like it carries a heavy irony.
    • 3/5
      This is labelled as a bestseller but I struggled to really get into it. The first half of the book is so full of names and details about each person mentioned that it was hard to keep track of what was going on. It felt disjointed and it wasn't easy to see how all the facts and people hung together. There was too much information about some seemingly irrelevant figures that confused the main story. In short, it wasn't especially readable and I nearly gave up.

      I'm glad I finished it as the second half was much more coherent and focused more on the two or three main characters and honed in on Philby, the master spy who committed the great betrayal.

      I believe this is a bestseller primarily due to the subject matter as I can see why this story would appeal to readers all across the genres. It is really an unbelievable and unique account of the worldwide spy and intelligence network during and after the second world war.

      I found it especially hard to believe that so many seemingly intelligent educated British men were so easily recruited by the KGB to serve the evil purposes of communism and that some of them continued to serve this purpose even after some of these evils had been widely exposed.

      It is tragic but in some ways fitting that those spies that sought refuge in Moscow rather than face trial in Britain, ended their days as loners trusted by neither country and no doubt hounded by their collective conscience....or maybe not.

      The language wasn't as bad as I have read in other books recently but there is enough swearing for me to comment on it. There is no graphic violence although numerous deaths. There are a few sexual jokes/references but nothing graphic.

      Some readers might enjoy this if you can make it past the boring first chapters to get more of a grip on the story and characters for the latter ones.
    • 5/5
      Ben MacIntyre does a great job of making this a suspenseful, fascinating story, despite the fact that we know what happens in the end. It's perhaps a too warts-and-all view of spying and the people and agencies that do it; the portraits MacIntyre paints are of people you wouldn't really want to trust with your housekeys if you really knew them, nevermind with secrets that could bring down nations - but they're compelling at the same time. Reading about Philby, it's easy to forget that this isn't a novel but rather real life MacIntyre's describing, real lives that were destroyed or lost through one man's sociopathic devotion to an idea. Though it's gripping, the story is ultimately somewhat unsatisfying which is no surprise; not only is "class and old school ties and mutual alcoholism" doesn't feel like a meaty enough explanation for what Philby was able to do and for how long, but also, of course, so much of what happened is still kept secret from the public and so many of the people involved are dead, professional liars, or both. In any case, it's enjoyable and disconcerting at the same time, and well worth reading.
    • 5/5
      Before I read this book, if you had asked me to play a word association game and given me "Kim Philby," my immediate response would have been "spy." And that would have covered everything I knew about the man. I didn't even know which side he was on or where he was from. (Don't judge.)That's what made A Spy Among Friends a real-live page-turner for me. I had to keep reading to find out how Kim Philby conned everyone, even his closest friends. Ben Macintyre has created a riveting read that follows Philby from his beginnings as a Soviet agent until his ultimate fate. (Are you like me and don't know the story? I won't spoil the surprise!)I think what I found most interesting was how the spying seemed less like a James Bond action-adventure kind of job, and more like a Nick Charles witty repartee kind of job. Macintyre's description of Istanbul after WWI, where all the spies from all the sides seemed to know each other and dined and drank in the same restaurants, was especially vivid. Everybody was seemingly watching everyone else and writing home about it in encrypted letters.This book really held my attention from beginning to end, which, by the way, includes a fascinating postscript from John LeCarre who worked in British intelligence at the same time as Philby. A fascinating book made all the more tantalizing by the fact that it's all true.Highly recommended!