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A review by gautamsing
Stalin's Englishman: The Lives of Guy Burgess by Andrew Lownie
5.0
On June 7, 1951 perhaps the biggest spy scandal in history broke. Guy Burgess (and Donald Maclean), insiders of the British establishment had disappeared 2 weeks ago, presumed to be on their way to Russia. The West didn’t know where they were, and the Russians were silent. The fact that it was clearly assumed they had fled to Russia (as they had), begs the question, if there was a known doubt on their loyalties, why were they in the government, let alone in intelligence?
Mr Lownie’s lovely book tells us why, as well as taking us through Guy Burgess’s fascinating life.
The people Burgess knew personally or met covers half my bookshelf of famous authors and people. John Maynard Keynes, Isaiah Berlin, WH Auden, EM Forster, Dylan Tomas, Christopher Ishwerwood, Lucian Freud, George Orwell, James (now Jan) Morris, Winston and Randolph Churchill, Graham Greene, Michael Redgrave, Eric Hobsbaum, Edward Cruikshank, Harold Nicholson, James Pope-Hennessey, Steven Runciman, Cyril Connolly, Victor Rothschild. There was of course the rest of infamous Cambridge 5, Donald Maclean, Kim Philby, Anthony Blunt, Cairncross.
Educated at Dartmouth, Eton, Trinity in Cambridge, a member of the Apostles (a part member being Bertrand Russell), he had it all. And he used it all, to pass on thousands of documents, telegrams, minutes of the Cabinet and the Imperial General staff, to the Russians.
Why did he do it? Like many spies he didn’t consider himself a traitor. He said there is no such thing as a European policy, and you’ve either got to choose America or Russia.
The reason he survived so long given his open communist leaning was the close knit British establishment where almost everyone seemed to be tainted. In fact when a White paper was finally submitted at the Commons, it was called the “Whitewash” paper.
His 12 years in Russia were very lonely. He missed London and his friends terribly, and said his life had ended when he left London. Drinking himself to death, the end came in 1963 when he was just 52.
When his brother Nigel went to buy a ticket for Moscow to go to his funeral, the agent at Thomas Cook hesitated when he saw the name, and asked “Single or Return”?
Mr Lownie’s lovely book tells us why, as well as taking us through Guy Burgess’s fascinating life.
The people Burgess knew personally or met covers half my bookshelf of famous authors and people. John Maynard Keynes, Isaiah Berlin, WH Auden, EM Forster, Dylan Tomas, Christopher Ishwerwood, Lucian Freud, George Orwell, James (now Jan) Morris, Winston and Randolph Churchill, Graham Greene, Michael Redgrave, Eric Hobsbaum, Edward Cruikshank, Harold Nicholson, James Pope-Hennessey, Steven Runciman, Cyril Connolly, Victor Rothschild. There was of course the rest of infamous Cambridge 5, Donald Maclean, Kim Philby, Anthony Blunt, Cairncross.
Educated at Dartmouth, Eton, Trinity in Cambridge, a member of the Apostles (a part member being Bertrand Russell), he had it all. And he used it all, to pass on thousands of documents, telegrams, minutes of the Cabinet and the Imperial General staff, to the Russians.
Why did he do it? Like many spies he didn’t consider himself a traitor. He said there is no such thing as a European policy, and you’ve either got to choose America or Russia.
The reason he survived so long given his open communist leaning was the close knit British establishment where almost everyone seemed to be tainted. In fact when a White paper was finally submitted at the Commons, it was called the “Whitewash” paper.
His 12 years in Russia were very lonely. He missed London and his friends terribly, and said his life had ended when he left London. Drinking himself to death, the end came in 1963 when he was just 52.
When his brother Nigel went to buy a ticket for Moscow to go to his funeral, the agent at Thomas Cook hesitated when he saw the name, and asked “Single or Return”?