Spies, Lies, and Exile: The Extraordinary Story of Russian Double Agent George Blake by Simon Kuper

Spies, Lies, and Exile: The Extraordinary Story of Russian Double Agent George Blake Reviews

• 
  Nigeyb

  George Blake died in 2020 aged 98. His death prompted this biography as
  Simon Kuper had promised that their interview would not be published during Blake’s lifetime.
  
  Blake’s is a good story and here it is well told. Blake was born in 1922 to a Dutch mother and Jewish Egyptian father, who died when he was 13, having acquired a British passport through wartime army service. George grew up in Rotterdam and worked for the Dutch resistance for some of WW2 before escaping to England in 1943 where he was headhunted by MI6. After the war he trained at Cambridge as a Russian linguist and was granted permanent British status by his bosses who liked him. They did not realise he was a dedicated anti-Nazi and a British patriot. Whilst a prisoner in North Korea he became more pro-Communist and, once he’d returned to Cold War intelligence duties, he supplied the KGB with information that doomed scores of western agents in the East. He even betrayed the famous spy tunnel that the Americans dug under East Berlin.
  
  Once uncovered as a spy he was sent to Wormwood Scrubs for a draconian 42 years however escaped after a few years and eventually made his way to East Germany. The court case and subsequent escape were on the front pages of the British papers for weeks. It’s an amazing story: a drunken Irish friend and a pair of peace activists managed to get him out. Later of the activists hid Blake under the seat of his camper van with his family in tow. After being dropped off in East Germany, Blake was based in the Soviet Union for the rest of his life.
  
  There are just the bare facts, it’s the detail that is so fascinating and enjoyable. Blake’s story is much more intriguing and interesting than those of the Cambridge ring. Kuper is a great journalist and this account is very compelling and it really does justice to this complex and unusual character.
  
  4/5
  
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  The Happy Traitor: Spies, Lies and Exile in Russia: The Extraordinary Story of George Blake (2021) by
  Simon Kuper is superb.
  
  'A deeply human read, wonderfully written, on the foibles of a fascinating, flawed, treacherous and sort of likeable character.' Philippe Sands
  
  Those people who were betrayed were not innocent people. They were no better nor worse than I am. It's all part of the intelligence world. If the man who turned me in came to my house today, I'd invite him to sit down and have a cup of tea.
  
  George Blake was the last remaining Cold War spy. As a Senior Officer in the British Intelligence Service who was double agent for the Soviet Union, his actions had devastating consequences for Britain. Yet he was also one of the least known double agents, and remained unrepentant.
  
  In 1961, Blake was sentenced to forty-two years imprisonment for betraying to the KGB all of the Western operations in which he was involved, and the names of hundreds of British agents working behind the Iron Curtain. This was the longest sentence for espionage ever to have been handed down by a British court.
  
  On the surface, Blake was a charming, intelligent and engaging man, and most importantly, a seemingly committed patriot. Underneath, a ruthlessly efficient mole and key player in the infamous 'Berlin Tunnel' operation. This illuminating biography tracks Blake from humble beginnings as a teenage courier for the Dutch underground during the Second World War, to the sensational prison-break from Wormwood Scrubs that inspired Hitchcock to write screenplay.
  
  Through a combination of personal interviews, research and unique access to Stasi records, journalist Simon Kuper unravels who Blake truly was, what he was capable of, and why he did it.
  
  
  
  
  
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• 
  Mark Joyce

  The title should arguably have a question mark in it, as the book is essentially an examination of the extent to which Blake was indeed happy and/or a traitor. The first of these questions was for me the more interesting. In his interview with Kuper the elderly Blake professes to be content with his major life decisions and to nurse few regrets. Yet I don’t recall him using the word happy at any point, and there is a powerful undercurrent of sadness and longing for the England and Netherlands he is permanently exiled from.
  
  This is not (and is not intended to be) an edge of the seat espionage thriller of the
  Ben Macintyre type. As those who are familiar with Simon Kuper’s journalism will expect, the style is flat and understated, with a keen eye for absurdity and hypocrisy (both Blake’s and of the societies that dismiss him as a traitor and/or celebrate him as a hero). On balance I think this is a worthwhile addition to a heavily ploughed stretch of historical terrain.
• 
  piet van genderen

  Viel me toch wat tegen. Het verhaal over de ontsnapping van spion Blake (Nederlandse wortels) uit een Britse gevangenis was gedetailleerd en spannend. De inhoud van zijn spionagewerk bleef daarentegen oppervlakkig. Wel veel ruimte voor Blake's verblijf in Rusland. De zeer uitvoerige literatuurlijst voegde weinig toe.
• 
  Elisa

  This book reminded me a lot of The Spy and the Traitor by Ben MacIntyre, but to me it was less impressive. That doesn't have anything to do with Kupers writing style for me, but I think that George Blake is just a bit "boring" (which is frequently hinted at in this book), especially for a double agent. Don't get me wrong, the book contained a lot of interesting aspects, especially the linguistic, political, and religious ones, but the rest was a bit "bland". It was illuminating to read about the reasons behind Blake's spying for the KGB and to gain a very small insight into his head.
• 
  Ellen

  Zeer interessant verhaal maar niet echt lekker opgeschreven. Honderden voetnoten maken het niet fijn leesbaar.
• 
  AdiTurbo

  The lives of many Cold War spies are fascinating - on the one hand, you have eccentric and unique people, highly intelligent and politically aware, who possess vast knowledge of multiple cultures and languages, are proficient in psychological manipulation and are usually morally confused. You get stories of intrigue, difficult life choices and tragic consequences, family dilemmas, cosmopolitan atmosphere, suspense and fear of being found out. On the other hand, the lives of these people reflect the story of a dramatic century, which follow, influence and are influenced by historical events.
  This story is no different, and is made even more poignant by the fact that the author managed to interview Blake, the spy in the center of the book before he died. The whole story is wonderful, and Kuper does a good job in telling it. it was new for me to read what Blake had to say about his decisions and actions in hindsight, so many years after the fact. It explained things, but mainly shed light on his personality and way of looking at things, and about the state of mind of people involved in intelligence work at the time. I loved the focus Kuper put on the question of whether espionage is at all worth it. Whether it has any real impact on history and how things turn out.
  A satisfying read.
• 
  Derek Nudd

  A well-written, pacey read by a journalist who was probably the last person to interview Blake, and moreover could chat with him in his native Dutch.
  Kuper doesn't dwell on the aspects of Blake's life explored in other biographies, for instance covering his 1943 naval service in four paragraphs and getting to his 1961 trial and conviction in the first 100 pages (out of 220). Instead he tries to understand the man, and arguably in the process is captivated by his legendary charm and erudition - something he recognises himself.
  There is an ethical question here. Kuper promised Blake the book would be published only in Dutch, to spare his family's feelings. This English edition was released after Blake's death by agreement with his close friend, Moscow-based Sauer.
  The narrative doesn't shy away from the damage Blake did, the deaths he was probably responsible for (while questioning how big an impact his work ultimately had) or his eventual disillusion. Unlike the Cambridge spies his very rootlessness enabled him to settle and adapt in almost any environment.
  The book is well produced and some of the photos (from Blake's archive) have not, to my knowledge, been seen before. It's a pity they are embedded in text, which reduces the quality, and not extracted to a plate section.
  Overall, a useful addition to the library.
• 
  Mandy

  Solidly researched, comprehensive and insightful, this is an illuminating and informative biography of double agent George Blake. Author Simon Kuper is a journalist, so it’s not surprising that he takes a more journalistic approach to his subject rather than writing a more scholarly cradle-to-grave biography, but it’s no less worthwhile for that. Kuper spent some time with Blake and these interviews are completely fascinating, adding to a more rounded portrait of an ultimately inscrutable man. Engaging, accessible and a really enjoyable read.
• 
  Anne Mills

  Well researched life story of a very unpleasant and uncaring egotistical person.
• 
  John

  A well told tale exploring the complex character and motivations of one of the KGB’s most valuable double agents. “Without [strong] attachment to [any one particular] country by birth, by growing up, by tradition, by education”, but rather having had each of those shaped by different countries, Blake became the quintessential ‘global citizen’ and learnt to adapt wherever fate took him, including Wormwood Scrubs. He found jovial happiness anywhere - no doubt much to the chagrin of the forty or more British agents whose life he destroyed.
• 
  juli

  I love learning new Cold War facts, and this was a fun one! I love reading about the spies in this period but I will admit it can be a little dry...
  But! I have fond memories of this book so it’s okay I guess.
• 
  Michael Hassel Shearer

  Spies, Lies and Exile by Simon Kuper
  
  I very much looked forward to this book and I was not disappointed. Mr. Kuper has honed his clear writing style as a journalist and George Blake is a spy of very interesting background. I have previously read The Many Sides of George Blake by E.H. Cookridge, The Greatest Traitor by Roger Hermiston as well as George Blake’s, No Other Choice. All of these are quite good but Mr. Kuper’s book is by far the best as he proposes convincing why Blake spied for the Soviets. He suggests he was influenced by his religion as well as the convictions of his cousin in Egypt Henri Curiel with whom he lived for a brief period during WW II. Both Henri and George felt a duty to assist the common man vs. the crippling powers of capitalistic governments.
  I have not seen the British version of the book but only the American version and the Preface is quite interesting. He suggests spying is a valuable way to discover the intentions of both sides. Perhaps only partially joking he suggests their might be spies posing as waiters at Mar-A-Lago. Not sure if he meant communists or Democrats.
  One point that struck me was Blake was a man without a single country but rather one who adapted well to wherever he was. For this reason, he succeeded in living the longest period of his life happily in Russia. (1966-2020)
  One last point of note, like Blake, Kuper is Dutch and was successful in meeting Blake in Russia and having a long conversation about his like in Dutch which seemed to allow Blake to be less guarded.
  I think this make a very good addition to anyone who is interested in the people involved with espionage during the Cold War.
  Spies chose to spy for many reasons, in Blake’s case, I think it felt justified to me.
• 
  Boipoka

  This was a fairly solid read - but I do wish the author's judgement/opinions didn't shine through quite so strongly. This would have been a far more enjoyable book if he would step back from the light a bit. (Also, I am probably spoilt by McIntyre's excellent books in the same genre)
  
  The book is divided in to 18 short chapters, covering Blake's life from his adolescence in Cairo to his ripe old age in Moscow. It does a good job of touching all the highlights of Blake's eventful life, collating sources from multiple languages. For much of the book I was simply awestruck by how eventful the man's life had been. IT reads like a Bollywood movie in more places than one.
  On the other hand, you won't learn anything new if you already knew the stories. To be fair, I agree with the author that Blake is a rather unknown figure in the Anglophone world, so most readers would probably enjoy the thrill of Blake's adventures as much as I did.
  
  That said, I often found myself wishing the author had delved deeper in to Blake's motives and philosophy at each stage of his life. I wish he had managed to interview people who knew Blake, and I wish he had asked Blake himself more about his experiences and philosophies and the changes he underwent.
  
  Overall, this was an enjoyable, fast-paced book - but not especially memorable (or illuminating).
• 
  Ernest Spoon

  Boy, this book was literally hot off the presses, as the subject, George Blake/Gyorgi Bekhter, only died December 26, 2020.
  
  I was torn between a three star or a four star rating--I dozed off reading some passages. But as you can see I ended up giving it four stars. For, as author Simon Kuper explains, George Blake was a likeable guy.
  
  And of all the Cold War-era true-espionage books I´ve read over the past few years (someone at the North Side branch of the Des Moines Public Library seems to like this particular niche genre) Blake´s double-agent career seemed remarkably mundane. Well, I suppose exposing upwards of 200 uncover operatives isn´t mundane by any means. But except for his escape from London´s Wormwood Scrubs prison, the man was a desk jockey.
  
  The common thread among the British Cold War double agents is they were all idealists who viewed Communism as the panacea par excellence to heal the societal ills caused by the rise of Industrial Capitalism. But of the great British turncoats, Kim Philby, Donald Maclean and Guy Burgess, Blake was the only one who made himself comfortable in the old Soviet Union. And even he saw the cracks in the facade.
  
  
  
  
• 
  Pascale

  Well-paced and consistently thoughtful. Although I admire Le Carré I have no particular interest in spies, actual or fictional. However, I felt that Simon Kuper's short book, based on one of the last interviews given by George Blake plus a synthesis of previous books about him, shed light not only on an unusual character but also on the Cold War and the doubtful use of secret intelligence during that troubled time. George Blake remains a highly contradictory figure: a principled man with a dislike of physical violence who showed no remorse for the many deaths he probably caused; a half-Jew who mostly read the Bible and the Koran; a social misfit who could happily adapt to very varied circumstances and milieus; a conscientious communist who wasn't appalled by the grim reality of life behind the Iron Curtain. Kuper makes a good case for this elusive man to be as worthy of interest as the high-born traitors who have attracted much more attention simply due to their upper-crust credentials.
• 
  Finbarr

  I read this on the strength of the author's previous work, having recently finished Kuper's book about Barcelona, his previous writings on football and his columns in the Financial Times. I've also developed a latent interest in the Cold War, perhaps because in my daily life, I report so much on what's been billed as the New Cold War, between the US and China. But the characters of the era fascinate me - none more than the agents and double agents, most of whom appear to be complex characters.
  
  George Blake was no different, and Kuper does very well to draw out the formative experiences that shaped his life. Born to a Dutch Calvinist background, raised in part by a Jewish Egyptian family, a spy for both the UK and USSR, but his only lasting beliefs appeared to have been about self-determination - very Calvinistic to the end.
  
  I enjoyed the book, but listened to an audio version in which the narrator adopted the accent of whichever character was speaking. Particularly nauseating was his awful Irish accent for Blake's jailbreak accomplice, but equally so the German and Russian efforts. Kuper, however, is an impressive writer and this book shows great flexibility. Good narrative journalism is an artform, and Kuper does it very well.
• 
  Tom Putnam

  A well cited biography which provides an insight into George Blake's life from start to finish; how he came to adopt Britain as his nation, and then how he came to spy on it for the kgb. Simon Kuyper details his life thereafter very well also. It is splendidly detailed.
  
  It left me with moral questions that I have to ask myself because Blake comes across as a decent man. Someone who, in his youth, was not entirely in control of his destiny. The world was in upheaval around him and had it not, he might have been a very good man. He is not like his Cambridge toff peers (I always felt that Philby was despisable), Blake comes from humbler beginnings.
  
  Am I being taken in by the charm of an old man who has blood on his hands? Is he a proxy murderer? Are all spies? Or is he a good soldier with a side? What is the difference?
• 
  Ron Seckinger

  The British traitor George Blake provided more secret information to the Soviets than the better-known Cambridge Five. Unlike those turncoats, Blake had no upper-class breeding, being half-Jewish and raised in the Netherlands. But he passed vast amounts of sensitive info to his handlers, compromising the Berlin Tunnel, for example, from the beginning. He also embarrassed the London government by staging a thrilling jailbreak from Wormwood Scrubs. Like Burgess, McLean, and Philby, on defecting he found the worker's paradise a decrepit society incapable of manufacturing feminine hygiene products or a decent flush toilet. Kuper's prose is competent but without flair.
• 
  Nienke

  Interessante roman waarin de menselijke kant van Blake, een spion met veel bloed aan zijn handen, wordt getoond.
  
  Het blijft zowel verbazingwekkend als compleet logisch hoe lakoniek Blake doet wat hij doet, zonder zich echt rekenschap te willen geven van de consequenties van zijn handelen.
  
  Als hij dat wel had gedaan was verder leven niet mogelijk, ook zou dat wellicht de spanning van het spionage werk teveel hebben opgevoerd.
  
  Ook de schrijver kan zich niet aan de charme van hem onttrekken, net als vele personages die beschreven worden. Daardoor blijft hij glad als een aal de pagina’s doorzwemmen en blijft het toch gissen naar wie hij echt was.
  
  Interessant is het ondertussen wel.
• 
  David Evans

  A spy betraying secret agents and sharing intelligence with the Soviets gets caught and thrown in prison, but makes a daring escape and finds his way to Moscow via East Berlin. This was a story I had to read. The book was well researched and does it’s best to explore George Blake’s motivations. His mother was Dutch and his father Jewish. He was a British citizen, but became drawn to communism during his imprisonment in North Korea. It’s hard to see exactly why Blake betrayed his country, but the author thoroughly walks through the reasons found through his research and interviews with Blake. Throughout the book I found it hard to trust anything relayed from the former spy. That said, it was fascinating to think about how Blake had to stay in his adopted country for the remainder of his life. The book talks about others who did the same only to discover the communist ideals they upheld weren’t as satisfying to endure once they were stuck in Russia. Nonetheless, Blake seemed to find a satisfying life and didn’t seem bothered by the deaths his betrayals caused.
• 
  Trebor

  I'm not sure if I really liked this book, but it was somewhat enlightening. Cold war espionage was rampant from many countries where spies, lies and death or exile (if you were lucky) was the price for treason or deception. The back story on traitors can sometimes be interesting but for me not garnering any sympathy. All governments have the tendency to be borderline corrupt or corruptable, after all they are made up made up of power mad bureaucrats.
• 
  Mike

  I enjoyed the book, it posed a few new questions and took a different approach to the normal spy biography. It also tried to answer some of the questions around the value of the material that was handed over to the Soviets.