'At every turn the gripping writing
reminds you of a world of spies and betrayal that was so
much a part of life in post-war Europe... Superb
from start to finish.' JEREMY VINE On 3 May
1961, after a trial conducted largely in secret, a man
named George Blake was sentenced to an unprecedented
forty-two years in jail. At the time few details of
his crimes were made known. By his own confession he was
a Soviet spy and rumours later circulated that his
actions had endangered British agents, but the reasons
for such a severe punishment were never revealed. To the
public, Blake was simply the greatest traitor of the
Cold War. Yet, as Roger Hermiston reveals in this
thrilling new biography, his story touches not only the
depths of treachery, but also the heights of
heroism. In WWII the teenage Blake performed sterling
deeds for the Dutch resistance, before making a dramatic
bid for freedom across Nazi-occupied Europe. Later
recruited by British Intelligence, he quickly earned an
exemplary reputation and was entrusted with building up
the Service’s networks behind the Iron Curtain. And,
following a posting to Seoul, he also suffered for his
adopted country, when captured by North Korean soldiers
at the height of their brutal war with the South. By
the time of his release in 1953, Blake was a hero, one
of the Service’s brightest and best officers. But
unbeknownst to SIS they were harbouring a mole. Week
after week, year after year, Blake was assiduously
gathering all the important documents he could lay his
hands on and passing them to the KGB. Drawing on
hitherto unpublished records from his trial, new
revelations about his dramatic jailbreak from Wormwood
Scrubs, and original interviews with former spies,
friends and the man himself, The Greatest Traitor
sheds new light on this most complex of characters
and presents a fascinating shadow history of the Cold
War.
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