Also known as The Happy Traitor when issued as a paperback, this Dutch journalist’s documentary is one of several books he has written.
George Blake was the lesser-known but probably more influential spy, not part of the triad of Philby, McLean and Blunt. Born in Rotterdam, of Dutch-Jewish parents he travelled the world, became a polyglot and double agent working for the KGB. In spite of harsh treatment in a North Korean prison, he became convinced that international communism was the best way to organize society. At some point, he flirted with Calvinism and considered becoming a clergyman, and denied the existence of free will.
His exposure of the underground Berlin tunnel where westerners eavesdropped on East German conversations (to the Soviets) was puzzlingly largely ignored by them but in part led to his downfall and imprisonment in Britain. His eascape from Wormwood Scrubs prison and flight to Russia was more daring than imaginable in a spy novel. As a foreigner, he had been treated more harshly than Philby, McLean, and Blunt.
A section of the book questions the impact of spying in many situations where the information obtained becomes lost in the bureaucracy or is simply ignored by those in power, most notably by Stalin when informed of Hitler’s imminent invasion of Russia.
To his dying day at age 98, he maintained a faith in communism. The author who interviewed him extensively seems ambivalent about his beliefs, but points out that his actions probably lead to the deaths of at least 40 loyal western spies. His two wives, one British, one Russian, must have been saints to put up with him and his antics and remain friendly to him even after his divorce.
I could never survive as a spy, let alone a double agent, but I found this book quite informative and entertaining.
3.5/5
The Passionate Reader 