At the time, the country was under the thumb of Engelbert Dollfuss, a right-wing dictator. Though Philby did eventually devote himself to the Socialist cause, he did so far from home, where he was unlikely to be recognized.

It’s known that he purchased some of Karl Marx’s works, but there’s no evidence of his ever reading or studying them in any detail, let alone of his preaching Communist ideas. There, he witnessed Nazi thugs demonstrating against Jews.īy this point, he was personally committed to the Socialist cause, but he was hardly outspoken about it. But a trip to Berlin in 1933 radicalized him. He began moving in a left-wing direction by canvassing for the moderate Labour Party. However, his scholastic tendencies were soon superseded by somewhat more controversial occupations as his political outlook shifted. When he went up to the university to read history, he was, like so many other first-year 18-year-olds, distinctly upper class and burning with academic ambition. To the Cambridge of 1930, Kim Philby was no outlier. what handlers teach recently recruited spies.what kind of charm can persuade a nation of your innocence and.which indiscreet drunkard was possibly the worst spy of all time.

In this summary of A Spy Among Friends by Ben Macintyre, you’ll learn This book summary tell the thrilling tale of a man who worked as a Soviet mole in MI6 for longer than one would think possible. Indeed, he and the associated Cambridge spy ring inspired John le Carré’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy as well as numerous other works of fiction and film. Philby remains the quintessential double agent. The deaths caused by his treacherous actions may number in the thousands. He was a charming traitor who never wavered in his allegiance to Moscow, even as he rose through the ranks of British intelligence. In many ways, the story of Kim Philby is a reminder never to be taken in by such romance. Then a finger would tap you on the shoulder – and, next thing you knew, you’d be involved in derring-do and escapades across Europe and the Middle East. One moment, you’d be quietly studying Greek lyric verse by the fire of a Cambridge college. It’s hard not to romanticize the British espionage operations of the twentieth century.

A spy among friends by ben macintyre