Review by Booklist Review
Lownie tackles the puzzle of why a privileged young man, born and bred to the idea of social hierarchy, would be drawn to the diametrically opposed tenets of communism. Even more puzzling is that there was a ring of young, privileged Brits who betrayed their country by spying for the Soviet Union during WWII and the Cold War. Lownie makes the case that among the members of the Cambridge Spy Ring, made up of Donald Maclean, Kim Philby, Anthony Blunt, and Guy Burgess, the latter was the most intriguing and possibly the most pernicious. The core of Lownie's argument is that Burgess' (and others') homosexuality at a time when this orientation was both against the law and hypocritically reviled by the establishment made these Cambridge undergraduates feel like outcasts in their own country, vulnerable to recruitment. This well-researched biography follows Burgess from Eton in the 1920s, through Cambridge in the '30s, on through his careers in the BBC, Foreign Office, and the British Secret Intelligence Service, and, simultaneously, his skillfully managed double life as a Soviet agent. Thoroughly engrossing.--Fletcher, Connie Copyright 2016 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Biographer and literary agent Lownie (John Buchan: The Presbyterian Cavalier) add his two cents to the oft-discussed subject of Britain's infamous Cold War spy circle, portraying Guy Burgess as the mastermind and a more important figure than Donald Maclean, Kim Philby, or Anthony Blunt. Burgess supplied his Soviet handlers with insight into key British foreign policy decisions, and he nurtured the group's naïve idealism and guided its infiltration of British foreign intelligence. Previous historians have posited how these gentlemen became traitors; Lownie suggests that Burgess-given his predilections for whiskey, young boys, and scandal-was especially easy prey for Soviet handlers who manipulated his insatiable need for acceptance. Lownie shows the withered Englishman in Moscow, confined to his flat and supplied with care packages and visits from "friends" in the British upper echelons worried that he would rat on them. Unfortunately, few Russian sources inform this biography and too little information comes first hand. The conclusion that Burgess began spying because he needed a "moral" purpose is not well substantiated. Lownie has added a couple of new twists to this already well known spy tale, but for the most part this is an old story. (Oct.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Several years before World War II and into the mid-1950s, a cadre of young British men who studied at Cambridge University worked as spies for Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union. Author Lownie (John -Buchan: The Presbyterian Cavalier) spent more than two decades researching one of the most enigmatic members of the spy ring, Guy Burgess (1911-63). This unshaven, rumpled, slovenly man with a brilliant mind beguiled MI5, MI6, and the Foreign Office in Britain's intelligence apparatus during the critical war years, even leaking the atom bomb secrets to the Soviet Union. Lownie's intent is to chronicle the events that turned so many of the British elite into closet communists and particularly offer "a completely new picture of Guy Burgess.arguing he was the most important of the Cambridge spies." Many books have been written about the spies, often concentrating on Harold Philby. Burgess and another spy from the ring, Donald Maclean, defected to Russia in 1951 as they were about to be exposed. -VERDICT Lownie brilliantly succeeds in painting a very complete picture of this British spy. Russophiles, amateur historians, and some Soviet experts will be moved by this book. [See Prepub Alert, 4/3/16.]-Harry Willems, Great Bend P.L., KS © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A biography of the most complex and enigmatic of the Cambridge Spies, a group of men recruited during the 1930s to spy for the Soviet Union.Guy Burgess (1911-1963) was well-born, well-educated, intelligent, and completely spoiled. Through his days at the Royal Naval College, Eton, and Cambridge, he fought to be accepted and, failing that, turned to outraging the bourgeois. In the 1930s, Cambridge was an intellectual maelstrom, and students felt that their generation had to do something significant. Through societies such as the Apostles and the Cambridge University Socialist Society, the lure of communism provided an answer. Leaving school, many then got on with life, but Burgess and at least four of his friends ended up spying for the communists. His antics are legion, his drunkenness unceasing. The book is full of dramatically opposing visions of his personality, but one element that all agree on was his brilliance. Politics, sex, and gossip were Burgess main interests, all easily fed by his work at the BBC, the Foreign Office, MI5, and MI6. Also well-fed were his Russian controllers, to whom he transmitted thousands of documents. In fact, he gave the Russians so many documents that many were never translated, decoded, or read. But Burgess was politically nave, ignoring the failures of communisms purges and communes. In this entertaining biography, literary agent Lownie (The Edinburgh Literary Companion, 2005, etc.) gives the impression that spying was almost a game for Burgess; deceit was integral to his life. At the same time, he was upfront about his homosexuality and, when drunk, often spoke of working for the Russians. He was never monogamous, cruel to his lovers, a natural liar, manipulative, louche, and slovenly, and he always did just what he wanted. He never had boundaries as a child, and even his mother said perhaps the Russian discipline might be good for him. Lownie amply demonstrates Burgess wily intelligence in navigating the spys life while often living so indiscreetly. A crack biography of a man who was a preposterous enigma. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
