Most spy biographies are tales of derring-do, caddish behaviour, betrayal, and often incompetence. However, Simon Kuper’s take on the career of George Blake, the KGB's man in MI6, is different.
The FT writer met Blake in Moscow in 2011, but promised not publish anything in English while Blake still lived. That embargo was lifted in December 2020 with Blake's death, and what has followed is a book that is much a study of conscience as it is a history of Blake's career as a KGB double-agent, for the man who was buried in Russia with full state honours was also the man who arguably sent hundreds of MI6 agents to their deaths.
