Rancorous and highly public disagreements between Isaiah Berlin and Isaac Deutscher escalated to the point of cruel betrayal in the mid-1960s, yet surprisingly the details of the episode have escaped historians’ scrutiny. In this gripping account of the ideological clash between two of the most influential scholars of Cold War politics, David Caute uncovers a hidden story of passionate beliefs, unresolved antagonism, and the high cost of reprisal to both victim and perpetrator....

In the popular imagination MI5, or the Security Service, is known chiefly as the branch of the British state responsible for chasing down those who endanger national security-from Nazi fifth columnists to Soviet spies and today's domestic extremists. Yet, working from official documents released to the National Archives,distinguished historian Caute discovers that suspicion also fell on those who merely exercised their civil liberties, posing no threat to national security. In reality, thi...

A gripping history of the Security Service and its covert surveillance on British writers and intellectuals in the twentieth centuryIn the popular imagination, MI5—or the Security Service—is know chiefly as the branch of the British state responsible for chasing down those who pose a threat to the country’s national security, from Nazi fifth columnists during the Second World War to Soviet spies during the Cold War and today’s domestic extremists. Yet, aided by the...

David Cautes wide-ranging study examines how outstanding novelists of the Cold War era conveyed the major issues of contemporary politics and history. In the United States and Western Europe the political novel flourished in the 1930s and 1940s, the crisis years of economic depression, fascism, the Spanish Civil War,the consolidation of Stalinism, and the Second World War. Starting with the high hopes generated by the Spanish Civil War, Caute then explores the god that failed pessimism tha...

The unputdownable biography of the enigmatic spy and traitor Guy Burgess: 'More riveting than a spy novel' - Sunday TelegraphGuy 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, ...

A SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE DECADE AND WINNER OF:The Baillie Gifford PrizeThe JQ-Wingate Literary PrizeThe British Book Awards Non-fiction Book of the YearThe Hay Festival Medal for Prose'One of the most gripping and powerful books imaginable' DOMINIC SANDBROOK, SUNDAY TIMESWhen he receives an invitation to deliv...

A STORY OF UNSUNG BRAVERY AT A DEFINING MOMENT IN BRITAIN'S HISTORY'Superb' Stephen Fry'Thrillingly told' Dan Jones'Fascinating' Neil MacGregor'Astonishing' Peter FrankopanWe like to think we know the story of how Britain went to war with Germany in 1939, but there is one chapter that has never been told. In the early 1930s, a group of young, queer British MPs visited B...

This landmark book uncovers for the first time in detail one of the greatest horrors of the twentieth century: the vast system of Soviet camps that were responsible for the deaths of countless millions.Gulag is the only major history in any language to draw together the mass of memoirs and writings on the Soviet camps that have been published in Russia and the West. Using these, as well as her own original research in NKVD archives and interviews with survivors, Anne Applebaum has ...

*** The Sunday Times bestseller ***'Vividly imagined and prodigiously researched' Helen Davies, Sunday Times, Books of the Year'Such a rewarding read' John Preston, Daily Mail, Books of the Year'This odd, secretive man is brought to life', Robbie Millen, The Times, Books of the YearMaxwell Knight was a paradox. A jazz obsessive and nature enthusiast (he is...

Josef Stalin ruled the Soviet Union with a combination of political savvy and cold-blooded brutality. He crushed the spirit of his own people while conquering half of Europe. What made the greatest murderer of the twentieth century tick?

A timely, riveting book that presents for the first time an alternative history of 1930s Britain, revealing how prominent fascist sympathizers nearly succeeded in overturning British democracy—using the past as a road map to navigate the complexities of today’s turn toward authoritarianism.Hitler’s Girl is a groundbreaking history that reveals how, in the 1930s, authoritarianism nearly took hold in Great Britain as it did in Italy and Germany. Drawing on recently declassified intel...

William Melville was one of the most influential counter - espionage figures of the twentieth century. This work presents the true story of the real M, William Melville, MI5s founding father and the inspiration for Ian Flemings character in "James Bond".