Period, yes, but
fun too

Historical atlas
Prehistory
Mesopotamia
Egypt
Greece
Rome
Middle Ages
Renaissance
Industrial age
Victorian times
Depression
WWII
Cold war
Information age
Future
King's mistress

Home

Stumble It!

World War II spies are here, more modern spies on this page.

Vietnam

Most of Graham Greene novels, specially The Heart of the Matter (beautiful title for an abominable book) get on my nerves. I detest complacency in sin with pages of discussion about sin and dereliction. But The Quiet American (1955) has deep historical meaning: this is one first book opposed to the American influence in Vietnam. It is not my view, but it is an interesting book.

If you are like me, a bit allergic to remorseful but unrepentant Catholicism, try instead of Greene this serious but fascinating book: War of Numbers: An Intelligence Memoir by Sam Adams

France

General De Gaulle, as president of France, had to decide whether France should stay in Algeria or let Algeria be independent. Algeria was supposed to be a French Department, an integral part of France, but Algerians were not treated as full citizen. De Gaulle decided to avoid a civil war and to grant Algeria independence. This meant that over a million French people, most of them born in Algeria, were forced to immigrate to France. It left in many circles a deep hate of De Gaulle, a hate so persistent that even nowadays, the French military do not give him his full historical value and avoid talking about De Gaulle altogether. I knew a lady who went to pray every week on the tomb of a man who tried to assassinate president De Gaulle. She called him "the poor young man": Colonel Jean Bastien-Thiry was executed in 1963. She was not alone: a lot of people in France still do not see him for the terrorist he was. Knowing this, you should doubly enjoy The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth. The movie is a tour de force. Edward Fox displays the type of charm that we have seen on Ted Bundy: I do not think that there is anything more difficult than to play a cold killer that appears to be nice. (essential book and essential movie)

Soviets

The Hunt for Red October (1984), the first novel of Tom Clancy was a great success and deserved it. The movie displays a powerful Alec Baldwin, and you get Sean Connery in prime.

Out of zillions books on the Cold War, I think that only John Le Carré will stay first as literature. If you like Le Carré, you might read them all. I do not read much of the author, what he has to say depresses me - even more so because he is so talented, but I guess that if I had been working in real life for the traitor Kim Philby as Le Carré himself, I would write very depressing stuff too.
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. The plot is about killing an East German Spy, there is also a tragic love story.
A Small Town in Germany Will Nazis come back in power in West Germany?
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy Find the British traitor, You got to find Philby in these pages.
The Honorable Schoolboy This is probably the most depressing book you can ever read. All the good guys (to the extent they are good) lose at the end.
Smiley's People Smiley (the boss of the British Agency) comes out of retirement to find out who murdered a British ally.
A Perfect Spy Great book, more the autobiography of a spy than a spy mystery. Partly based on Philby. (essential book).
The Russia House In this case, the naive publisher used as a pawn by the spies ends up being the winner, Also a relatively good movie with Sean Connery and Michelle Pfeiffer.

One American author was very successful in describing Bonn, Checkpoint Charlie and all the paraphernalia of the cold war, including bars...it is Ross Thomas (b. 1926). Thomas won an Edgar Award for The Cold War Swap (1967) and another one for Briarpatch (1985). In between there are a wealth of books to read, a lot of them relate the Cold War.

Traitors in Great Britain

I bought Cambridge spies because it had such a good press, and I was always interested in the treason of Philby, Blunt, Burgess and Maclean. I was disappointed: the men are so deeply unpleasant that I could not wait for the movie to end.

But if you want to see a superb movie about a communist spy in Britain (it is in fact about a member of the Cambridge spies group) try A question of attribution.(essential movie) It is only in VHS, but it is worth the effort. People of my generation remember that Philby escaped to URSS in 1963, the treason of Blunt was not publicly known until 1979. James Fox gives his formidable talent as aging traitor Sir Anthony Blunt, who became entrusted with the restoration of the Queen's paintings. There is a magnificent comparison between fake paintings and treason, between the revelation of cancer (Blunt was dying of cancer) and the revelation of treason. John Schlesinger (Midnight Cowboy) directed this unforgettable movie. Prunella Scales plays the Queen with intelligence and makes her more interesting and believable that the horrible movie The Queen, which is, for me, all unpleasant complacency.

Post cold war

Our Game by John Le Carré surprising book; well done.
The Moscow Club by Joseph Finder I have not read it, but even people who thought that the story was not quite believable could not put the book down.
The Last Spymaster by Gayle Lynds I did not read the book, but it has readers.
Gorky Park by Martin Cruz-Smith (b. 1942 in PA) is an astounding book: finally a "good Russian". The hero is a policeman, not a spy, but he gets in trouble with spies. I was impressed by the book and by the movie. What is most striking is that it is a believable story. The policeman Arkady Renko appears in five other novels.

Israel

The Little Drummer Girl by John Le Carré On Israel and Palestinians
Spies, Inc.: Business Innovation from Israel's Masters of Espionage by Stacy Perman. I have not read this, but my guess is that it should be interesting: Israel spies have been notably successful.

Iraq

The Fist of God by Frederick Forsyth

Africa

The Passenger (1975) Jack Nicholson, Maria Schneider Director: Michelangelo Antonioni Rather than a spy novel, it is the story of man escaping himself (essential movie).
The Dogs of War by Frederick Forsyth This story of a coup in an imaginary African country is based on Equatorial Guinea. I mention it, though it is not a spy story, because Forsyth had such an incredible intelligence. You can read a discussion of that here.
The Constant Gardener by John Le Carré about fraudulent pharmaceuticals in Africa, excellent book, good movie

ex-Yugoslavia

Great background information on Yugoslavia (also some on Vietnam) that you cannot miss in this Forsyth novel: Avenger.

USA

Morning Spy, Evening Spy by Colin MacKinnon This is about the CIA just before 9/11, not the best book you will ever read, but it is there.

Master Spy: Robert Hanssen Story (2002) I found it very interesting that this is not a good film. The reason is that Robert Hanssen was such a deeply unpleasant man that you keep wanting him arrested sooner: you just want the movie to end and to forget about this repulsive man. I had the same experience with Cambridge spies (here).

Traitors Among Us: Inside the Spy Catcher's World by Stuart Herrington if you want to get closer to the real stuff. I have not read the book.

James Grady's Six Days of The Condor. I am usually allergic to conspiracy theories,- enough is enough - but this is a good book and it was followed by a very good movie Three Days of the Condor. I got to add that I was also impressed by Mel Gibson in The Conspiracy Theory. This is the story of a guy who has, when the movie starts, some kind of mental disease including delusions and paranoia...but in the end, it is all true.

By the way: it is always difficult to defend abused people with a mental disorder, because they have no credibility; it is a deep social problem we have: mental patients in hospitals and jails are over half a million. We do not know how well their rights are respected. The movie reminded me of that.

Some of the best spy stories come from British authors, so if you get stuck, check here (books from alibris.uk are sent from Canada)

Top of the page