Spy Named Orphan

Donald Maclean is the most infamous of Britain’s twentieth-century spies, a double agent who defected to the Soviet Union, and whose betrayal plunged the Cold War alliance between Britain and the United States into crisis.

Part of the ‘Cambridge Five’, Maclean was a true ideologue and the most complex and compelling character of the group. Making use of previously classified material from the SIS and Foreign Office archives, Roland Philipps unravels the man and his many contradictions: a childhood and upbringing filled with strictures; an adult life of repressions, deceptions and binges; a marriage complicated by secrets of its own; and a looming sense of his fate closing in on him.

Taking us back to the golden age of espionage, A Spy Named Orphan examines the character, motivation and impact of the most ardent, dangerous and enigmatic spy of the twentieth century. At the same time it illuminates the changes in world power after the Second World War, tracing the decline of American and British relations as well as the growing chill of the Cold War that brought us to the verge of catastrophe.

Donald Maclean este cel mai infam dintre spionii secolului al XX-lea al Marii Britanii, un agent dublu care a trecut in Uniunea Sovietica si a carui tradare a facut ca alianta Razboiului Rece dintre Marea Britanie si Statele Unite sa intre in criza. un adevarat ideolog si cel mai complex si convingator personaj al grupului.