Book description
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 M16'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 Carre'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.
Harold Adrian Russell 'Kim' Philby was born in Ambala, India, in
1912, where his father was a high-ranking civil service officer. After
graduating from Westminster School in 1928, Philby went to Trinity
College, Cambridge, where he became one of the 'Cambridge Spies'. After
working as a journalist, Philby was recruited into the British Secret
Intelligence Service in 1940 where he rose through the ranks. He was,
however, working as a double agent for the KGB, continuing to do so
until his defection to the Soviet Union in 1963. He wrote My Silent War
in 1968 and lived out the rest of his life in Russia, where he died in
1988, an official Soviet hero.
