Book description
A wealthy lawyer, debonair ladies' man, consummate actor, and
courageous gambler, Dusko Popov played the role of playboy amongst the
top echelons of British society to become one of Germany's most
trusted spies. In fact, he was one of Britain's most successful double
agents, and, some say, the inspiration for James Bond. With full
access to FBI and MI5 records, along with private family papers, his
incredible adventures can now be told authoritatively for the first
time.
Recruited by the Abwehr in 1940, 27-year-old Popov immediately
offered his services to the British. His code-name was Tricycle.
Throughout the war he fed the Germans with a constant stream of
military 'intelligence', all vetted by MI5, and came to be viewed as
their most important and reliable agent in Britain. But when he was
ordered by the Abwehr to the United States to report on the defences
at Pearl Harbor, J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the FBI, failed to heed
his warnings, distrusting all spies and detesting Popov in particular,
whom he considered to be 'a moral degenerate'.
Facing the danger of exposure, arrest and execution on a daily
basis, Tricycle went on to build up a network known as the Yugoslav
Ring, which not only delivered a stream of false information to Berlin
but also supplied vital intelligence to the Allies on German rocketry,
strategy and security. After the war Dusko Popov was granted British
citizenship and awarded an OBE. The presentation was made,
appropriately, in the cocktail bar at the Ritz.
Russell Miller is a prize-winning journalist and the author of
fifteen books. His book on the Magnum photo agency was described by John
Simpson as 'the best book on photo-journalism I have ever read', and his
oral histories of D-Day,
Nothing Less Than Victory
, and the SOE,
Behind The Lines
, were widely acclaimed, both in Britain and in the United States. He is
also the author of
Bare-faced Messiah: The True Story of L. Ron
Hubbard.
