My Silent War - (Modern Library Classics (Paperback)) by Kim Philby (Paperback)

About the Book

Back in print for the first time in 12 years, this book is the legendary memoir of England's most infamous double agent, who spied for the Soviet Union from the top ranks of MI6 during and after World War II.

Book Synopsis

In the annals of espionage, one name towers above all others: that of H.A.R. "Kim" Philby, the ringleader of the legendary Cambridge spies. A member of the British establishment, Philby joined the Secret Intelligence Service in 1940, rose to the head of Soviet counterintelligence, and, as MI6's liaison with the CIA and the FBI, betrayed every secret of Allied operations to the Russians, fatally compromising covert actions to roll back the Iron Curtain in the early years of the Cold War.

Written from Moscow in 1967, My Silent War shook the world and introduced a new archetype in fiction: the unrepentant spy. It inspired John le Carré's Smiley novels and the later espionage novels of Graham Greene. Kim Philby was history's most successful spy. He was also an exceptional writer who gave us the great iconic story of the Cold War and revolutionized, in the process, the art of espionage writing.

Review Quotes

"Far more gripping than any novel of espionage I can remember." --Graham Greene

"To this day I am convinced that he was not an ideologue. Spying was just his way of being above lesser mortals." --Nigel West

"Addictive . . . highly polished . . . written with style and a feline sense of irony, making it a much better read than any of the other Philby literature." --The Guardian

"Philby has no home, no women, no faith. Behind the inbred upper-class arrogance, the taste for adventure, lies the self-hate of a vain misfit for whom nothing will ever be worthy of his loyalty. In the last instance, Philby is driven by the incurable drug of deceit itself." --John le Carré

About the Author

Phillip Knightley is a journalist and the author of Master Spy: The Story of Kim Philby.

Graham Greene was a member of the SIS and one of the most highly regarded English novelists of the twentieth century. Among his many works are The Power and the Glory, The Human Factor, Our Man in Havana, and The Third Man.