Enemies Within, Richard DavenportHines
Enemies Within, Richard DavenportHines
List: $44.99 | Sale: $31.50
Club: $22.49

Enemies Within

Author: Richard Davenport-Hines

Narrator: Richard Trinder

Unabridged: 24 hr 12 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/25/2018

Synopsis

What pushed Blunt, Burgess, Cairncross, Maclean and Philby into Soviet hands? With access to recently released papers and other neglected documents, this sharp analysis of the intelligence world examines how and why these men and others betrayed their country and what this cost Britain and its allies Enemies Within In a book that is as intellectually thrilling as it is entertaining and illuminating, Richard Davenport-Hines traces the bonds between individuals, networks and organisations over generations to offer a study of character, both individual and institutional. At its core lie the operative traits of boarding schools, the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, the Intelligence Division, Foreign Office, MI5, MI6 and Moscow Centre. Davenport-Hines tells many stories of espionage, counter-espionage and treachery. With its vast scope, ambition and scholarship, charts how the undermining of authority, the rejection of expertise and the suspicion of educational advantages began, and how these have transformed the social and political temper of modern Britain.

About Richard Davenport-Hines

Richard Davenport-Hinesis the acclaimed biographer of W. H. Auden and the Macmillan dynasty. He is also the author of Proust at the Majestic: The Last Days of the Author Whose Book Changed Paris and The Pursuit of Oblivion: A Global History of Narcotics. He is a regular contributor to the U.K. publications Literary Review, Sunday Telegraph, Spectator, and the Times Literary Supplement.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Ann

This book provides a detailed analysis of Russian/Soviet espionage in the UK, starting from the Revolution through the Cold War. But it's more than a mere retelling of the old spy stories : what the author tracks is how these stories shaped the perception of the secret services, of Russia/Soviet Uni......more

Goodreads review by Ryan

Exposes many of the myths and misconceptions surrounding the Cambridge Spies......more

Goodreads review by Davidg

You might not think it possible to produce a dull book on the Cambridge Spies and other Soviet espionage within the UK. However, Davenport-Hines has managed this with ease. Other reviewers have commented on how far they got before giving up, I did manage to get to the end with a huge sense of relief......more

Goodreads review by Ellen

I got a little bit bogged down in some of the detail. Sometimes less is more.......more

Quotes

‘Richard Davenport-Hines, in his fascinating and compendious new book … challenges prevailing interpretations and provides answers to all the major questions about spies… As a result, this book manages to be both nostalgic and politically progressive when it seeks to remind us, passionately and eloquently, of the value of trust’ Guardian ‘Davenport-Hines writes persuasively … Enemies Within provides a comprehensive demolition of many widely accepted myths surrounding communist subterfuge during the Cold War … it is encouraging to come across such an erudite and unapologetically ‘elitist’ counterblast’ Spectator ‘A supremely accomplished historian … he writes with mordant wit and a merciless eye for distortions … the great virtues of this book lie in the detail Davenport-Hines amasses and his sense of context’ Sunday Times ‘He is strong on retelling the spy stories … but the chief virtue of the book is the almost revisionist judgments he feels able to make based on his research … in this rich, detailed and entertainingly irascible book’ Book of the Week, The Times ‘The product of one of our greatest modern masters of non-fiction Richard Davenport-Hines, Enemies Within is an exhaustive … chronicle of spies in Britain … a mosaic of such vivid detail’ Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday ‘There could not be a more experienced interrogator of a subject so festooned with myths of sleaze, power and treachery … Enemies Within is a peculiar and fascinating hybrid’ Observer ‘Richard Davenport-Hines dissects and destroys … conventional wisdom in his masterly retelling of Britain’s most notorious intelligence disaster … makes his case with splenetic zeal, backed by a formidable array of sources … fascinating’ Economist ‘The history of the five Cambridge spies recounted in this book with Richard Davenport-Hines’s usual vim and brio … a vivid panorama … [he] bases his case on wide research and illustrates it with a wealth of piquant anecdote’ Literary Review

Add to Cart
Add to Wish List