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Stalin's Englishman

The Lives of Guy Burgess

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Stalin's Englishman

By: Andrew Lownie
Narrated by: Simon Shepherd
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About this listen

'MORE RIVETING THAN A SPY NOVEL': THE GRIPPING TRUE STORY OF CAMBRIDGE SPY GUY BURGESS

Guy Burgess was the most important, complex and fascinating of 'The Cambridge Spies' - Maclean, Philby, Blunt - all brilliant young men recruited in the 1930s to betray their country to the Soviet Union. An engaging and charming companion to many, an unappealing, utterly ruthless manipulator to others, Burgess rose through academia, the BBC, the Foreign Office, MI5 and MI6, gaining access to thousands of highly sensitive secret documents which he passed to his Russian handlers.

In this first full biography, Andrew Lownie shows us how even Burgess's chaotic personal life of drunken philandering did nothing to stop his penetration and betrayal of the British Intelligence Service. Even when he was under suspicion, the fabled charm which had enabled many close personal relationships with influential Establishment figures (including Winston Churchill) prevented his exposure as a spy for many years.

Through interviews with more than a hundred people who knew Burgess personally, many of whom have never spoken about him before, and the discovery of hitherto secret files, Stalin's Englishman brilliantly unravels the many lives of Guy Burgess in all their intriguing, chilling, colourful, tragi-comic wonder.

PUBLISHED TO GREAT CRITICAL ACCLAIM:

Winner of the St Ermin's Intelligence Book of the Year Award.

'One of the great biographies of 2015.' The Times

Fully updated edition including recently released information.

A Guardian Book of the Year. The Times Best Biography of the Year. Mail on Sunday Biography of the Year. Daily Mail Biography of Year. Spectator Book of the Year. BBC History Book of the Year.

'A remarkable and definitive portrait ' Frederick Forsyth

'Andrew Lownie's biography of Guy Burgess, Stalin's Englishman ... shrewd, thorough, revelatory.' William Boyd

'In the sad and funny Stalin's Englishman, [Lownie] manages to convey the charm as well as the turpitude.' Craig Brown

©2015 Andrew Lownie (P)2015 Hodder & Stoughton Historical Russia

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All stars
Most relevant  
Always been interested in the Cambridge spy ring so I really enjoyed this book.
The reader was excellent.

Fascinating

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Many interesting parts but found the narrative repeated itself, so some parts were a bit boring.

Interesting but repetitive

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this book shows house silly some people can be. Was Burgess the Spy because of his conviction or because his Love of daring? book explores this but leaves the question suitably open

Eton Blinders

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It is difficult to believe that the outrageous Guy Burgess could maintain a career with access to sensitive intelligence for so long, spying for USSR, in spite of his erratic behaviour. He was a promiscuous gay man when that could lead to imprisonment as well as disapproval, a notorious drinker, indiscrete, open about his Communist beliefs. BUT he was also “Establishment”! Eton, Cambridge, Reform Club, “good family” knew everyone of influence, wealth or celebrity. And always wore his old school tie, even after his defection to USSR. At one point he seemed to be about to marry Churchill’s niece. An extraordinary life, too fantastic for fiction.

Defector with old Etonian tie

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So informative. This book has stimulated my interest in espionage history at that time. The author gives a well researched and balanced account.

well researched and interesting

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This is an amazing, fact-filled tale that anyone interested in this period of history will enjoy.

Great story, well-read!

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A very interesting and full account of Guy Burgess and his circle.
It's a shame that the narrator's near monotone didn't emphasise in places especially in certain crucial areas of the story, which I found myself having to rewind to check, otherwise a good book.

Well researched, let down by narrator

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Thrilling read, engagingly performed by the great Sir Simon Shepherd.

Delves beneath the caricature of Burgess seen in other books and unearth’s a complex, hilarious and often sad figure. Excellent final summary on the reasons behind his betrayal tops the whole thing of nicely

Great fun

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Burgess was a self obsessed eccentric perv who the KGB employed. He failed and so did the Soviet Union.

Burgess Spy Ring Explained

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I suppose eveyone has heard of Guy Burgess but who was he? Andrew Lowrie makes a fine attempt to get to know him but it is not an easy task - it would seem there are as many Guy Burgesses as people who knew him! That said most witnesses would agree that he was brilliant, could draw marvellous sketches, promiscuous, drank enormous quantities and liked chewing garlic, wore tailor made clothes which were wrinkled and grubby and had dirty fingernails. He either charmed or revolted. He was amusing or boorish. He went from prep school to Eton with a spell at the naval school, back to Eton then Cambridge where he converted to Marxism and was enrolled as a spy. He then moved to London and worked at the BBC finally ending up in the Foreign Office. He also seems to have spent most of his time in London getting smashed in smart places in Mayfair and for the most part was in the company of smart people. It is hard to imagine why he should want a workers revolution which would have taken away the privileged life he led and it is also hard to understand why he remained faithful to the Stalinist regime even when he must surely have been aware of the dreadful acts perpetrated first of all on the Russian people. I'm surprised that as a well-known homosexual he could have ignored the condemnation of homosexuality by the communists who considered it to be a decadent, bourgeois affectation and whose persecution of gay people was not a secret.
Apart from his betrayal I could not help feeling immensely attracted to this man and found his portrayal highly entertaining in parts. I doubt if he could leave anyone indifferent.
Given the context of the 1930s it is easy to understand why communism would appeal to young idealists especially when faced with the growing numbers of aristocrats who were leaning towards an adulation of Hitler and the unseemly creed of anti-semitism; but after the war and especially events during the Cold War it is harder to comprehend a continuation of such an adherence in maturer years by these spies.
The narrator does a marvellous job in bringing this superb work to life. I was rivetted from start to finish and I know this is a book I will probably have to read a few times more to fully absorb the amount of historical detail.

Outstanding! Fascinating subject!

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