New Releases by Ben MacIntyre

“For six days, it was the Iranian Embassy on Princes Gate in London that riveted the world. . . . Macintyre’s superb reconstruction restores it to vivid, complex life.”—The Washington Post A thrilling tick-tock recounting of one of the most harrowing hostage situations and daring rescue attempts of our time—from the true-life espionage master and New York Times bestselling author of Operation Mincemeat and The Spy and the Traitor. “[Ben Macintyre is] John le Carré’s nonfiction counterpart.”—The New York Times A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, Minnesota Star Tribune, Parade As the American hostage crisis in Iran boiled into its seventh month in the spring of 1980, six heavily armed gunman barged into the Iranian embassy in London, taking twenty-six hostages. What followed over the next six days was an increasingly tense standoff, one that threatened at any moment to spill into a bloodbath. Policeman Trevor Lock was supposed to have gone to the theater that night. Instead, he found himself overpowered and whisked into the embassy. The terrorists never noticed the gun hidden in his jacket. The drama that ensued would force him to find reserves of courage he didn’t know he had. The gunmen themselves were hardly one-dimensional—all Arabs, some highly educated, who hoped to force Britain to take their side in their independence battle against Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini. Behind the scenes lurked the brutal Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, who had bankrolled the whole affair as a salvo against Iran. As police negotiators pressed the gunmen, rival protestors clashed violently outside the embassy, and as MI6 and the CIA scrambled for intelligence, Britain’s special forces strike team, the SAS, laid plans for a dangerous rescue mission. Inside, Lock and his fellow hostages used all the cunning they possessed to outwit and outflank their captors. Finally, on the sixth day, after the terrorists executed the embassy press attaché and dumped his body on the front doorstep, the SAS raid began, sparking a deadly high-stakes climax. A story of ordinary men and women under immense pressure, The Siege takes readers minute-by-thrilling-minute through an event that would echo across the next two decades and provide a direct historical link to the tragedy on 9/11. Drawing on exclusive interviews and a wealth of never-before-seen files, Macintyre brilliantly reconstructs a week in which every day minted a new hero and every second spelled the potential for doom.

Em 30 de abril de 1980, seis homens fortemente armados irromperam na embaixada iraniana em Londres. Aí fizeram 26 reféns, incluindo funcionários da embaixada, visitantes e três cidadãos britânicos. Seguiu-se um tenso cerco de seis dias, enquanto milhões de pessoas se reuniam em torno dos ecrãs em todo o mundo para assistirem ao noticiário mais longo da história da televisão britânica, no qual negociadores da polícia e psiquiatras procuravam pôr um fim ao impasse sem derramamento de sangue. Enquanto isso, o SAS – até então uma organização envolta em secretismo – planeava uma ousada missão de salvamento: a Operação Nimrod. Com base em fontes inéditas, entrevistas exclusivas com o SAS e depoimentos de testemunhas – incluindo reféns, negociadores, agentes dos serviços secretos e o psiquiatra que se encontrava no local –, o historiador Ben Macintyre conduz os leitores numa viagem emocionante, desde os anos e semanas de preparação de ambos os lados, até ao relato, minuto a minuto, do cerco e do salvamento. Recriando as conversas dramáticas entre os negociadores e os reféns, o trabalho vital dos serviços secretos nos bastidores e o frenesim dos meios de comunicação social em torno deste momento de importância internacional, O Cerco é a história notável do que realmente aconteceu naqueles seis dias fatídicos e o primeiro relato completo de um momento que mudou para sempre a forma como a opinião pública encarava as forças especiais.

El 30 de abril de 1943 un pescador de Punta Umbría encontró flotando en el mar el cadáver de un oficial británico, el comandante William Martin, con un maletín encadenado a su cuerpo. Antes de devolverlo a los británicos, las autoridades españolas transcribieron los papeles que contenía el maletín, incluyendo los planes para un desembarco en Grecia, y los hicieron llegar al gobierno alemán, que se preparó para organizar su defensa. Pero donde los aliados desembarcaron, tres meses después, fue en Sicilia. William Martin no había existido nunca y los papeles de su maletín estaban destinados a engañar a los alemanes. El gobierno británico no permitió nunca contar la auténtica historia de esta operación, por temor a la reacción española; pero Ben Macintyre, el autor de Zigzag, ha accedido a los documentos originales y nos cuenta por fin toda la verdad acerca de una de las historias de espías más fascinantes de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, incluyendo la evidencia de la complicidad de los militares españoles con los nazis.

‘Spannend en prettig leesbaar boek’ Historisch nieuwsblad Bestsellerauteur Macintyre neemt je mee naar 1980: de bezetting van de Iraanse ambassade in Londen en de nagelbijtend spannende reddingsactie van de SAS, een gebeurtenis die een directe historische link vormt met de tragedie van 9/11 Toen de Iraanse gijzelingscrisis in de Amerikaanse ambassade in Iran in het voorjaar van 1980 zijn zevende maand inging, bestormden zes zwaarbewapende schutters de Iraanse ambassade in Londen en verschansten zich daar met 26 gegijzelden. Wat volgde was een gespannen zesdaagse impasse, die elk moment kon ontsporen in een bloedbad. Agent Trevor Lock zou de avond van 30 april 1980 naar het theater gaan. In plaats daarvan werd hij overmeesterd en de ambassade binnen gevoerd. De schutters waren Arabieren die hoopten Groot-Brittannië te kunnen dwingen hun kant te kiezen in hun onafhankelijkheidsstrijd tegen de hoogste Iraanse leider: ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Achter de schermen loerde de wrede Iraakse dictator Saddam Hoessein, die de hele affaire had gefinancierd als aanval tegen Iran. Terwijl politieonderhandelaars druk uitoefenden op de gijzelnemers, rivaliserende demonstranten elkaar te lijf gingen buiten de ambassade, en MI6 en de CIA hun best deden om inlichtingen te verzamelen, maakte het Britse speciale aanvalsteam, de SAS, plannen voor een hachelijke reddingsmissie. Binnen gebruikten Lock en zijn medegegijzelden al hun sluwheid om hun gijzelnemers te slim af te zijn. Uiteindelijk, nadat de terroristen op de zesde dag de persattaché van de ambassade executeerden en zijn lichaam voor de deur dumpten, begon de SAS-aanval, die leidde tot een climax met een hoge inzet. Op basis van exclusieve interviews en een schat aan nooit eerder gepubliceerde bronnen reconstrueert Macintyre op briljante wijze een week waarin elke dag een nieuwe held werd geboren en elke seconde de laatste had kunnen zijn. Ben Macintyre in de pers Ik bewonder de historicus Ben Macintyre enorm.’ Jeroen Vullings ‘Met aansprekende anekdotes schetst Ben Macintyre het leven in het Duitse krijgsgevangenenkamp Colditz. Macintyre wekt de gevangenispopulatie knap weer tot leven: het met de nodige anekdotiek scherp neerzetten van zijn personages is een van zijn specialiteiten, zo bleek al uit vorige boeken als Agent Sonya en het verfilmde Operatie Mincemeat.’ Trouw ‘Zo spannend opgeschreven dat je de film meteen voor je ziet.’ **** NRC

Questa è l’incredibile storia vera della prigione più inespugnabile della Germania nazista. Un castello, quello di Colditz in Sassonia, che nel corso dei secoli era stato fortezza medievale, residenza di caccia, sanatorio, sede di gruppi paramilitari, e che infine, durante la Seconda guerra mondiale, fu per quattro anni campo di prigionia per ufficiali alleati ad alto rischio di fuga. Così all’interno di quelle mura – a strapiombo su un fossato oltre il quale comunque non c’era la libertà, ma chilometri e chilometri di terra tedesca – si creò una specie di “università dell’escapismo”, un microcosmo di persone con un unico obiettivo: l’evasione. Ciò, tuttavia, non si tradusse mai in vera e propria unità: ciascun gruppo nazionale, nei pochi anni in cui Colditz fu il campo di massima sicurezza Oflag IV-C, tentò la fuga decine di volte, sovrapponendo gallerie a gallerie, tentativi a tentativi, al punto che si rese addirittura necessaria l’istituzione di un «comitato internazionale per l’evasione», il solo a essere informato di ogni singolo piano, di cui gli spettava specifica autorizzazione. Dei numerosissimi tentativi attuati, in realtà, solo pochi andarono a buon fine, e tutti all’insegna di una certa assurdità: ci fu chi si nascose tra la folla di ritorno da una partita di calcio, chi viaggiò otto giorni in sella a una bicicletta rubata, chi scappò cucito all’interno di un materasso pieno di paglia marcescente. Con Prigionieri del castello, Ben Macintyre ci conduce dietro le quinte di un’intrigante storia del Novecento per offrirci il ritratto di un gruppo di uomini eroici ma fallibili, che pur prigionieri replicavano gli schemi classisti e gli antagonismi della società pre-bellica; il libro definitivo sul mito di Colditz. «Un capolavoro. Avvincente in modo assurdo, e allo stesso tempo pieno di informazioni, esilarante e commovente». Geoff Dyer «Leggere Prigionieri del castello è come guardare una fotografia in bianco e nero colorarsi e prendere vita». The Spectator

Due agenti segreti inglesi di mezz’età sorseggiano tè in un appartamento nel quartiere cristiano di Beirut. Sono stati amici per trent’anni, ora sono diventati mortali nemici. Entrambi mentono, uno vuole che l’altro confessi. Si apre cosí, come un romanzo di Le Carré, Una spia tra noi, l’incredibile storia vera di Kim Philby, l’agente segreto che fu a capo del controspionaggio britannico contro l’Unione Sovietica nell’immediato dopoguerra, ma che passò alla Storia per il piú clamoroso tradimento che coinvolse, e sconvolse, l’Occidente. Nessuno credeva di conoscere Philby meglio di Nicholas Elliott, collega dell’MI 6: avevano frequentato le stesse scuole, appartenevano agli stessi circoli esclusivi, il loro rapporto si era cementato col lavoro di intelligence durante il conflitto e le lunghe notti di bevute e baldoria. Mai Elliott avrebbe pensato che Philby potesse essere una spia comunista, decisa a sovvertire a ogni costo l’ordine del mondo libero. Invece, tutti i giorni per trent’anni, ogni parola che Elliott gli aveva sussurrato era stata ritrasmessa a Mosca. Ma Philby aveva stretto un legame anche con un altro astro nascente dell’intelligence mondiale, ovvero James Jesus Angleton, l’astuto e paranoico capo del controspionaggio della CIA. Per decenni, le inconsapevoli rivelazioni di Angleton ed Elliott aiutarono Philby ad affondare quasi tutte le piú importanti operazioni di intelligence del Patto atlantico, condannando innumerevoli agenti a un triste destino. E quando la rete del sospetto cominciò a chiudersi intorno a Philby, costringendolo a un sistema sempre piú complesso di menzogne, Elliott cercò comunque un ultimo, drammatico confronto. Basato su documenti e file inediti dell’intelligence britannica, Una spia tra noi è una storia di lealtà e di inganni, di ideali e di coscienza, di amicizie forgiate e tradite in circostanze eccezionali, il racconto appassionante dell’ultimo grande segreto della Guerra fredda. «Una lettura superba, illuminante» Malcolm Gladwell, The New Yorker «Avvincente e ben realizzato come un episodio di Tutti gli uomini di Smiley, pieno di cinismo, segreti, omicidi e litri di whisky» Kirkus Reviews «Macintyre scrive con il piglio del narratore nato. Degno del miglior John le Carré» John Banville «Come un thriller di spionaggio, in cui però ogni incredibile dettaglio è reale» The Observer

Oleg Gordijewskis Weg in den sowjetischen Geheimdienst war ihm als Sohn zweier KGB-Agenten in die Wiege gelegt. Da er Deutsch konnte, brachte ihn eine seiner ersten Anstellungen nach Berlin, wo er den Bau der Mauer hautnah mitbekam – es sollte sich als eines von vielen Ereignissen erweisen, die seinen Glauben an den Kommunismus zerrütteten. Ganz brach er mit ihm aber erst 1968, als sowjetische Truppen in Prag einmarschierten, und bot sich dem britischen MI6 als Doppelagent an. Schnell wurde er zur wichtigsten Informationsquelle für den Geheimdienst ihrer Majestät. Seine Identität wurde nicht nur vor den Sowjets geheim gehalten, auch die engsten Verbündeten tappten im Dunkeln. Etwas, was die CIA nicht auf sich sitzen lassen konnte: Sie beauftragte einen ihrer Offiziere mit der Identifizierung des Mannes. Der Offizier hieß Aldrich Ames und sollte noch zu zweifelhaftem Ruhm als sowjetischer Spion gelangen ... Ben Macintyres Buch entfaltet ein Dreiecksspiel zwischen den Geheimdiensten der USA, Großbritanniens und der Sowjetunion und gipfelt in Oleg Gordijewskis fesselnder und filmreifer Flucht aus Moskau 1985. Wie ein Roman von John le Carré entführt es den Leser in eine Welt des Verrats und der Täuschung.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The “entertaining [and] often-moving account” (The Wall Street Journal) of the remarkable POWs whose relentlessly creative attempts to escape a notorious Nazi prison embodied the spirit of resistance against fascism, from the author of The Spy and the Traitor “Macintyre has a knack for finding the most fascinating story lines in history.”—David Grann, author of The Wager and Killers of the Flower Moon In this gripping narrative, Ben Macintyre tackles one of the most famous prison stories in history and makes it utterly his own. During World War II, the German army used the towering Colditz Castle to hold the most defiant Allied prisoners. For four years, these prisoners of the castle tested its walls and its guards with ingenious escape attempts that would become legend. But as Macintyre shows, the story of Colditz was about much more than escape. Its population represented a society in miniature, full of heroes and traitors, class conflicts and secret alliances, and the full range of human joy and despair. In Macintyre’s telling, Colditz’s most famous names—like the indomitable Pat Reid—share glory with lesser known but equally remarkable characters like Indian doctor Birendranath Mazumdar whose ill treatment, hunger strike, and eventual escape read like fiction; Florimond Duke, America’s oldest paratrooper and least successful secret agent; and Christopher Clayton Hutton, the brilliant inventor employed by British intelligence to manufacture covert escape aids for POWs. Prisoners of the Castle traces the war’s arc from within Colditz’s stone walls, where the stakes rose as Hitler’s war machine faltered and the men feared that liberation would not come soon enough to spare them a grisly fate at the hands of the Nazis. Bringing together the wartime intrigue of his acclaimed Operation Mincemeat and keen psychological portraits of his bestselling true-life spy stories, Macintyre has breathed new life into one of the greatest war stories ever told.

Em 1942, numa pacata aldeia da região verdejante de Cotswolds, no centro de Inglaterra, uma mulher magra e elegante vivia numa pequena casa de campo com os três filhos e o marido, que trabalhava nas imediações como maquinista. Ursula Burton era afetuosa, mas reservada, e falava inglês com um ligeiro sotaque forasteiro. Parecia viver uma vida simples, humilde. Os vizinhos de aldeia sabiam pouco sobre ela. Não sabiam que, na verdade, era uma oficial de alta patente da espionagem soviética. Não sabiam que o marido também era espião, nem que ela comandava uma poderosa rede de agentes a operar na Europa. Por detrás da fachada da sua vida pitoresca, Burton era uma comunista convicta, uma coronel soviética, uma agente experiente que recolhia segredos científicos que permitiriam à União Soviética construir a bomba atómica. Esta história verdadeira, de espionagem, é uma obra-prima sobre a mulher com nome de código «Sonya». Ao longo da sua carreira foi perseguida pelos chineses, japoneses e nazis, pelo MI5, MI6 e o FBI, sem nunca ter sido apanhada. A sua história reflete o grande confronto ideológico do século XX entre o comunismo, o fascismo e a democracia ocidental, e lança uma nova luz sobre as lutas e as lealdades instáveis dos espiões no nosso tempo.

En dramatisk fortelling fra fangeleiren nazistene ikke klarte å holde styr på! Les om tyskernes store flause: Fangeslottet Colditz og krigsfangene som nektet å forbli innesperret. Den globale sensasjonen Ben Macintyre, forfatter av Spion og forræder, er tilbake med en helt annerledes fortelling fra andre verdenskrig: I Fangeslottet Colditz blir de tyske fangemesterne rundlurt. Fluktforsøk, spionasje, galskap og kjærlighet: Pat Reid og hans medfangers påfunn er en uforglemmelig historie!

1985 egyik meleg júliusi estéjén középkorú férfi állt Moszkva szívében, egy nyüzsgő sugárúton a járdán, kezében műanyag bevásárlószatyorral. Szürke öltönyében, nyakkendőjével pont úgy nézett ki, mint bármely más szovjet ember. Egyedül a szatyor volt kissé gyanús, mert a brit szupermarket, a Safeway vörös logója díszelgett rajta. A férfi az MI6 kémje volt. A KGB főtisztjeként több mint egy évtizeden át felbecsülhetetlen értékű titkokat juttatott el folyamatosan brit irányítóinak a szovjet hírszerzési gépezet mélyéből. Soha még nem okozott egyetlen kém sem ekkora károkat a KGB-nek. A safewayes szatyor jel volt: ez indította be a szökési tervet, amellyel kicsempészték a Szovjetunióból. Ezzel vette kezdetét a kémkedés történetének egyik legvakmerőbb, egészen rendkívüli eseménye. Kém és áruló oldalain Ben Macintyre bemutatja az árulás, a kettős játék és a puszta bátorság elemeiből összeálló történetet, ami mindörökre megváltoztatta a hidegháború menetét.

THE #1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER - AND PERFECT GIFT FOR HISTORY BUFFS! ''A master at setting the pulse racing'' Daily Mail ''A fine feat of storytelling . . . will surely become the last word on the subject'' Telegraph _____________________________ FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF SAS: ROGUE HEROES Colditz Castle: a forbidding Gothic tower on a hill in Nazi Germany. You may have heard about the prisoners and their daring and desperate attempts to escape, but that''s only part of the real story. In Colditz: Prisoners of the Castle, bestselling historian Ben Macintyre takes us inside the walls of the most infamous prison in history to meet the real men behind the legends. Heroes and bullies, lovers and spies, captors and prisoners living cheek-by-jowl for years in a thrilling game of cat and mouse - and all determined to escape by any means necessary. Deeply researched and full of incredible stories, this is a tale of ordinary people facing extraordinary circumstances - and will change how you think about Colditz forever. _____________________________ ''Like watching a black-and-white photograph being colourised'' Spectator ''Every Ben Macintyre book is a treat'' The Tablet Sunday Times bestseller, November 2022

Esta es la historia, por primera vez contada en toda su verdad, de Oleg Gordievski, que llegó a ser un alto mando de la KGB soviética a la vez que actuaba como informador del MI6 británico: el hombre que con sus advertencias a los gobiernos británico y norteamericano consiguió evitar que en 1985 se desencadenase un holocausto atómico y ayudó a acelerar el fin de la Guerra Fría. Ben Macintyre, maestro de la literatura de espionaje, consigue en esta ocasión, gracias a disponer de una información privilegiada, ofrecernos una imagen real de la actuación de los servicios secretos durante la Guerra Fría. Pero su libro es también la historia de un hombre que vivió en un constante riesgo de muerte y tuvo que tomar las decisiones más difíciles; un hombre cuyo odio por el comunismo tuvo el poder de cambiar el futuro de las naciones para protagonizar una historia con la que Macintyre consigue emocionarnos.

Nine out of ten times when life is unsatisfactory, I will use desserts to heal my troubles and twists and turns. All unhappy life will be dealt with by desserts! The first book of the super-popular YouTube channel World-weary Dessert Shop will use 42 desserts to save your world-weary life. Welcome to the World-Worthy Dessert Shop. The desserts made by others are quiet, elegant and full of joy, but in the world-weary dessert shop.

En frostklar vinterdag i januar 1966 lander en ung russisk diplomat og hans kone i København. Mandens navn er Oleg Gordijevskij, og officielt er han ansat ved den sovjetiske ambassade. Men i virkeligheden er han KGB-officer, toptrænet i spionage mod vesten. Sådan begynder et ekstraordinært kapitel af spionagens historie. Opholdet i Danmark og mødet med vestlig kultur sætter et ideologisk skred i gang i Gordijevskij, som ender med at “hoppe af” til vesten. I mere end et årti viderebringer han hemmeligheder fra hjertet af den sovjetiske efterretningstjeneste til britiske MI6- agenter i København og London. Oplysninger, der bidrager til at afværge atomkrig og ændrer den kolde krigs gang. I Spionen og forræderen fører britiske Ben Macintyre læseren ind i en verden af bedrag og forræderi, hemmelige dokumenter og skjulte signaler. Det er en utrolig, men sandfærdig historie om en enkelt mands store indsats på et kritisk tidspunkt i verdenshistorien.

''Het beste waargebeurde spionageverhaal dat ik ooit las.'' John le Carré Superspannend: over de buitenlandse betrekkingen tussen de Verenigde Staten, Engeland en Rusland en botsende ideologieën Ben Macintyre is een gelauwerd historicus en auteur, dit is zijn beste boek tot nu toe Dit is het waargebeurde verhaal van een van de meest buitengewone spionnen uit de geschiedenis. In 1968 kreeg Oleg Gordievsky zijn eerste post voor de KGB en binnen een paar jaar werd hij de topman van de Sovjet-Unie in Londen, waar hij vanaf 1973 stiekem werkte voor MI6. Geen enkele andere spion heeft de KGB meer beschadigd en de loop van de Koude Oorlog voor altijd zo veranderd. De CIA wilde koste wat het kost weten wie deze bron was die overduidelijk op het hoogste niveau opereerde. En de CIA-officier die was aangesteld om hem te identificeren, was Aldrich Ames: de man die zelf berucht zou worden omdat ook hij een dubbelspion was en in het geheim voor de Sovjets spioneerde. Maar Oleg Gordievsky speelt de hoofdrol in een gehaaid spel tussen Amerika, Groot-Brittannië en de Sovjet-Unie dat zijn climax vindt in een filmische ontsnapping uit Moskou in 1985. Adembenemend spannend én allemaal waargebeurd. De pers over De spion en de verrader: ''Oleg Gordievsky was de belangrijkste Britse agent van de Koude Oorlog... Een oogverblindende non-fictiethriller, een intiem portret van spionage op het hoogste niveau.'' The Guardian ''Macintyre is de meest vooraanstaande schrijver geworden van de Britse inlichtingengeschiedenis omdat hij de essentie begrijpt van spionage: het gaat over wachten, plannen, schaduwen, verbergen.'' The Washington Post ''Bloedstollende en waargebeurde spionagegeschiedenis uit de meest wanhopige jaren van de Koude Oorlog...'' Kirkus reviews ''Een dubbelportret van twee van de meest succesvolle dubbelagenten van de Koude Oorlog.'' The New York Times

Överste Oleg Gordievskij var på toppen av sin karriär. 46 år gammal hade han blivit befordrad till drömpositionen på KGB:s Londonkontor och inbjuden till högkvarteret i Moskva för att formellt bli krönt som chef över hela KGB. När han anlände till Moskva vandrade Gordievskij självsäkert genom flygplatsens säkerhetskontroll. Inombords kände han dock en djup oro – KGB-veteranen Gordievskij, Sovjetunionens trogne hemlige tjänare, var nämligen brittisk spion. Den internationellt bästsäljande författaren Ben Macintyre skriver i Spion & förrädare om det djärvaste kapitlet i spionagets historia. Det är en berättelse om svek, dubbelspel och dristighet som ändrade kalla krigets riktning för alltid.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the celebrated author of Operation Mincement and The Siege comes the thrilling Americans-era tale of Oleg Gordievsky, the Russian whose secret work helped hasten the end of the Cold War. “The best true spy story I have ever read.”—JOHN LE CARRÉ Named a Best Book of the Year by The Economist • Shortlisted for the Bailie Giffords Prize in Nonfiction If anyone could be considered a Russian counterpart to the infamous British double-agent Kim Philby, it was Oleg Gordievsky. The son of two KGB agents and the product of the best Soviet institutions, the savvy, sophisticated Gordievsky grew to see his nation’s communism as both criminal and philistine. He took his first posting for Russian intelligence in 1968 and eventually became the Soviet Union’s top man in London, but from 1973 on he was secretly working for MI6. For nearly a decade, as the Cold War reached its twilight, Gordievsky helped the West turn the tables on the KGB, exposing Russian spies and helping to foil countless intelligence plots, as the Soviet leadership grew increasingly paranoid at the United States’s nuclear first-strike capabilities and brought the world closer to the brink of war. Desperate to keep the circle of trust close, MI6 never revealed Gordievsky’s name to its counterparts in the CIA, which in turn grew obsessed with figuring out the identity of Britain’s obviously top-level source. Their obsession ultimately doomed Gordievsky: the CIA officer assigned to identify him was none other than Aldrich Ames, the man who would become infamous for secretly spying for the Soviets. Unfolding the delicious three-way gamesmanship between America, Britain, and the Soviet Union, and culminating in the gripping cinematic beat-by-beat of Gordievsky’s nail-biting escape from Moscow in 1985, Ben Macintyre has crafted an electrifying account of an international hero. Like the greatest novels of John le Carré, The Spy and the Traitor brings readers deep into a world of treachery and betrayal, where the lines bleed between the personal and the professional, and one man’s hatred of communism had the power to change the future of nations.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The incredible untold story of World War II’s greatest secret fighting force, as told by the modern master of wartime intrigue—now an original series on MGM+! “Reads like a mashup of The Dirty Dozen and The Great Escape, with a sprinkling of Ocean’s 11 thrown in for good measure.”—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times ONE OF NPR’S BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR • “Rogue Heroes is a ripping good read.”—Washington Post (10 Best Books of the Year) Britain’s Special Air Service—or SAS—was the brainchild of David Stirling, a young aristocrat whose aimlessness belied a remarkable strategic mind. Where most of his colleagues looked at a World War II battlefield map and saw a protracted struggle, Stirling saw an opportunity: given a small number of elite men, he could parachute behind Nazi lines and sabotage their airplanes and supplies. Defying his superiors’ conventional wisdom, Stirling assembled a revolutionary fighting force that would upend not just the balance of the war, but the nature of combat itself. Bringing his keen eye for detail to a riveting wartime narrative, Ben Macintyre uses his unprecedented access to the SAS archives to shine a light on a legendary unit long shrouded in secrecy.

Kim Philby fue el más grande espía en la historia, un hombre brillante y encantador que encabezó la contrainteligencia británica contrala , Unión Soviétic durante el apogeo de la Guerra Fría a la vez que trabajaba en secreto para el enemigo. Nadie creía conocer mejor a Philby que Nicholas Elliott, su mejor amigo y compañero oficial del MI6. Los dos hombres habían ido a las mismas escuelas, pertenecían a los mismos clubes exclusivos, desarrollaron sus carreras en las labores de inteligencia en tiempo de guerra y largas noches de bebida y juerga. Parecía una locura pensar que Philby podría ser un espía comunista empeñado en subvertir los valores occidentales y el poder del mundo libre. Pero Philby estaba, secretamente, traicionando a su amigo. Cada palabra de Elliott fue transmitida a Moscú. También en América, Philby había hecho otro pod.

Philby est sans aucun doute l’espion le plus célèbre et le plus scandaleux du XXe siècle. Ce livre, basé sur des lettres personnelles, des journaux intimes, des interviews ainsi que sur des archives déclassées des services secrets britanniques, américains et soviétiques, retrace le parcours d’une vie qui fut... une perpétuelle trahison. L’Espion qui trahissait ses amis retrace avec force détails, et dans un style purement narratif qui fait penser aux romans de John Le Carré, l’histoire rocambolesque de Kim Philby, sur fond de guerre, puis de guerre froide. Un personnage double dans les faits et dans la psychologie, à la fois responsable de la mort de milliers de personnes à travers le monde et grand séducteur. L’Espion qui trahissait ses amis se lit d’une traite, comme un roman. C’est une histoire d’espionnage palpitante, aussi intense et intrigante qu’un thriller, digne de Graham Greene ou John Le Carré. Mais c’est aussi, on l’oublierait presque, une histoire vraie solidement documentée sur le parcours rocambolesque de Kim Philby depuis la Seconde Guerre mondiale jusqu’à la fin de la guerre froide, et sur son amitié tragique avec Nicholas Elliott. Une amitié extraordinaire entre deux êtres viscéralement liés mais que l’idéologie séparera toute leur vie : Nicholas Elliott, maître espion britannique, sera aussi fidèle à son pays que Philby, le sublime traître, le sera à l’Union soviétique. Ben Macintyre est un conteur-né et sa description de l’univers des espions est aussi fine qu’hilarante : en pénétrant les arcanes des services de renseignement britanniques, le lecteur découvrira une galerie de portraits hauts en couleurs sur fond d’establishment et de beuveries monumentales. Anecdotes et grande Histoire se mêlent astucieusement au fil du récit pour donner lieu à une brillante combinaison de connaissances et de divertissement. Au final, ce livre merveilleusement ficelé n’est peut-être pas le dernier sur le « phénomène Philby », mais à travers le prisme de l’amitié et de la loyauté bafouées, il offre une nouvelle compréhension psychologique de l’espion le plus remarquable des temps modernes. Ce livre est la traduction française du best seller A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal A propos de l''auteur Ben Macintyre est chroniqueur et rédacteur en chef adjoint du Times, journal pour lequel il a également été correspondant à Paris, New York et Washington. Il a étudié l’histoire à Cambridge et est l’auteur de précédents livres d’histoire narrative à succès dont Opération Mincemeat et Les Espions du Débarquement. Un livre publié par Ixelles éditions Visitez notre site : http://www.ixelles-editions.com Contactez-nous à l''adresse [email protected]

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The epic true story of Kim Philby, the Cold War’s most infamous spy, from the “master storyteller” (San Francisco Chronicle) and author of Prisoners of the Castle. Now an MGM+ series starring Damian Lewis, Guy Pearce, and Anna Maxwell Martin “[A Spy Among Friends] reads like a story by Graham Greene, Ian Fleming, or John le Carré, leavened with a dollop of P. G. Wodehouse.”—Walter Isaacson, New York Times Book Review Who was Kim Philby? Those closest to him—like his fellow MI6 officer and best friend since childhood, Nicholas Elliot, and the CIA’s head of counterintelligence, James Jesus Angleton—knew him as a loyal confidant and an unshakeable patriot. Philby was a brilliant and charming man who rose to head Britain’s counterintelligence against the Soviet Union. Together with Elliott and Angleton he stood on the front lines of the Cold War, holding Communism at bay. But he was secretly betraying them both: He was working for the Russians the entire time. Every word uttered in confidence to Philby made its way to Moscow, sinking almost every important Anglo-American spy operation for twenty years and costing hundreds of lives. So how was this cunning double-agent finally exposed? In A Spy Among Friends, Ben Macintyre expertly weaves the heart-pounding tale of how Philby almost got away with it all—and what happened when he was finally unmasked. Based on personal papers and never-before-seen British intelligence files and told with heart-pounding suspense and keen psychological insight, A Spy Among Friends is a fascinating portrait of a Cold War spy and the countrymen who remained willfully blind to his treachery. ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, Entertainment Weekly, Shelf Awareness

From the bestselling author of Agent Zigzag and Double Cross the true story of Friedrich Nietzsche''s bigoted, imperious sister who founded a ''racially pure'' colony in Paraguay together with a band of blond-haired fellow Germans.

Agent Zigzag: One December night in 1942, a Nazi parachutist landed in a Cambridgeshire field. His mission: to sabotage the British war effort. His name was Eddie Chapman, but he would shortly become MI5''s Agent Zigzag. Dashing and louche, courageous and unpredictable, inside the traitor was a hero, inside the villain, a man of conscience: the problem for Chapman, his many lovers and his spymasters, was knowing where one ended and the other began. Ben Macintyre weaves together diaries, letters, photographs, memories and top-secret MI5 files to create the exhilarating account of Britain''s most sensational double agent. Operation Mincemeat: One overcast April morning in 1943, a fisherman notices a corpse floating in the sea off the coast of Spain. When the body is brought ashore, he is identified as a British soldier, Major William Martin of the Royal Marines. A leather attaché case, secured to his belt, reveals an intelligence goldmine: top-secret documents Allied invasion plans. But Major William Martin never existed. The body is that of a dead Welsh tramp and every single document is fake. Operation Mincemeat is the incredible true story of the most extraordinary deception ever planned by Churchill''s spies - an outrageous lie that travelled from a Whitehall basement, all the way to Hitler''s desk. Double Cross: D-Day, 6 June 1944, the turning point of the Second World War, was a victory of arms. But it was also a triumph for a different kind of operation: one of deceit... At the heart of the deception was the ''Double Cross System'', a team of double agents whose bravery, treachery, greed and inspiration succeeded in convincing the Nazis that Calais and Norway, not Normandy, were the targets of the 150,000-strong Allied invasion force. These were not conventional warriors, but their masterpiece of deceit saved thousands of lives. Their codenames were Bronx, Brutus, Treasure, Tricycle and Garbo. This is their story.

All''alba del 10 luglio 1943 le truppe alleate sbarcarono in Sicilia nel primo attacco alla "Fortezza Europa" in mano a Hitler. Un attacco destinato ad avere un grande successo e ad aprire una nuova, cruciale fase nelle operazioni belliche.

Traces the sophisticated D-Day operation through which extraordinary spies deceived the Nazis about the location of the Allied attack, profiling the successful Double Cross System and the remarkable individuals who used the program to save thousands of lives. By the best-selling author of Agent Zigzag. 100,000 first printing.

Un matin d’avril 1943, un pêcheur de sardines espagnol repère un cadavre flottant sur la mer, au large des côtes Andalouses. C’est la dépouille d’un soldat britannique. Hissé à bord de l’esquif, une mallette en cuir attachée à son poignet, revêtu d’un uniforme de sa Majesté, tout laisse à penser que la mission spéciale de ce militaire a tourné court... Pourtant, bien au contraire, elle ne fait que commencer ! Et sa découverte va entraîner une suite d’événements qui changeront le cours de la guerre. Ainsi commence l’Opération Mincemeat (Opération Chair à pâté en français), la plus grande mystification militaire réussie parmi toutes celles entreprises. Et certainement la plus étonnante. Celle qui permit de berner les espions nazis, de détourner les troupes de la Wermarcht vers les Balkans et la Sardaigne pour permettre aux Alliés de débarquer tranquillement en Sicile, et de sauver ainsi des milliers de vies. Tout ceci grâce au Major William Martin ! Mais le Major Martin... n’a jamais existé ! Le corps repêché est en fait celui d’un clochard gallois déguisé et tous les documents qu’il transportait sont bidons. Ils font partie de l’extraordinaire plan conçu par les services de renseignements britanniques pour distiller de fausses informations aux Allemands. Voilà pourquoi l’homme étendu dans les dunes de Punta Umbria est un imposteur. Les mensonges qu’il colporte seront acheminés de Londres à Berlin en passant par Madrid, transitant par un loch glacé en Écosse jusqu’aux côtes de Sicile, de la salle 13 de l’Amirauté britannique jusqu’au bureau d’Hitler. Une enquête minutieuse de journaliste et d’historien servie par une mise en scène digne des meilleurs romans d’espionnage Des personnages irrésistibles, des situations hallucinantes (au point que les conspirateurs de l’opération croient presque à leurs propres mensonges), l’enthousiasme de l’auteur pour l’histoire et tous ses protagonistes, y compris le cadavre, font de ce document historique un formidable livre d’action. A l’aide de documents privés inédits, de photographies, de souvenirs, de lettres et de journaux, ainsi que d’archives du MI5 récemment ouvertes au public, Ben Macintyre retrace brillamment l’histoire vraie, et paradoxalement totalement fictive, de la plus grande supercherie de la Seconde Guerre mondiale. 260 000 exemplaires vendus en Angleterre. Best-seller aux États-Unis. Traduit dans toute l’Europe et également en Chine, Brésil, Japon et Israël. A propos de l''auteur Ben Macintyre est chroniqueur et rédacteur en chef adjoint du Times, journal pour lequel il a également été correspondant à Paris, New York et Washington. Il a étudié l’Histoire à Cambridge et est l’auteur de précédents livres d’histoire narrative à succès dont le célèbre Agent Zigzag. Un livre publié par Ixelles éditions Retrouvez-nous sur www.ixelles-editions.com email [email protected]

''A sprinkling of delightful nuggets about the uses and abuses of the English Language'' Daily Telegraph, Books of the Year ''[There are] myriad delights in Ben Macintyre''s musings on language'' The Times, Books of the Year _____________________ Do you know your geek-speak from your geek-chic? Ever wanted to put Humpty Dumpty together again? Can you distinguish Spanglish from Chinglish? We adapt words from other languages, from slang, from developments in science, literature and art. Learn the advantages of having your own signature word; why the lifts in the House of Commons have posh accents; and discover the discreet art of the loophemism. Witty and utterly delightful, The Last Word will tease, tickle and tantalise those who enjoy all things lexical.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Prisoners in the Castle, a dramatic portrait of the master thief of the nineteenth century: Adam Worth “Fascinating . . . a brisk, lively, colorful biography of an amazing criminal.”—The New York Times (Best Books of the Year) The Victorian era’s most infamous and iconic thief, the inspiration for Sherlock Holmes’s Professor Moriarty, Adam Worth was known as the Napoleon of crime. Suave, cunning, and fearless, Worth learned early that the best way to succeed was to steal. And steal he did. Following a strict code of honor, Worth won the respect of Victorian society. He also aroused its fear by becoming a chilling phantom, mingling undetected with the upper classes, whose valuables he brazenly stole. His most celebrated heist: Gainsborough’s grand portrait of the Duchess of Devonshire—ancestor of Diana, Princess of Wales—a painting Worth adored and often slept with for twenty years. With a brilliant gang that included “Piano” Charley, a jewel thief, train robber, and playboy, and “the Scratch” Becker, master forger, Worth secretly ran operations from New York to London, Paris, and South Africa—until betrayal and a Pinkerton man finally brought him down. The Napoleon of Crime is a grand, dazzling tour into the gaslit underworld of the nineteenth century, and into the doomed genius of a criminal mastermind.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NOW A NETFLIX FILM STARRING COLIN FIRTH • The “brilliant and almost absurdly entertaining” (Malcolm Gladwell, The New Yorker) true story of the most successful—and certainly the strangest—deception carried out in World War II, from the acclaimed author of The Spy and the Traitor “Pure catnip to fans of World War II thrillers and a lot of fun for everyone else.”—Joseph Kanon, The Washington Post Book World Near the end of World War II, two British naval officers came up with a brilliant and slightly mad scheme to mislead the Nazi armies about where the Allies would attack southern Europe. To carry out the plan, they would have to rely on the most unlikely of secret agents: a dead man. Ben Macintyre’s dazzling, critically acclaimed bestseller chronicles the extraordinary story of what happened after British officials planted this dead body—outfitted in a British military uniform with a briefcase containing false intelligence documents—in Nazi territory, and how this secret mission fooled Hitler into changing military positioning, paving the way for the Allies’ drive to victory. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES