Zigzag: The Incredible Wartime Exploits of Double Agent Eddie Chapman

by Nicholas Booth

The most remarkable double agent of World War II, Eddie Chapman was witty, handsome, and charming. Too bad he was also a con man, womanizer, and safe-cracker. To the British, though, he was known as ZigZag, one of MI5OCOs most valuable agents. To the AbwehrOCoGerman military intelligenceOCohe was known as Fritzchen (Little Fritz), and was believed to be one of their most valued and trusted spies. For three long years, Eddie played this dangerous double game, daily risking life and limb to help the Allies win the war. He was so charming that his German handler, Baron Stefan von GrAning, thought of Fritzchen as the son he never had. The Germans even awarded him the Iron Cross for spying for the Reich! They sent him to Britain, with the mission to blow up the De Havilland aircraft factory. How he and MI5 convinced the Germans that he had accomplished his mission stands as one of historyOCOs greatest acts of counterintelligence.

Until now, Eddie ChapmanOCOs extraordinary double life has never been told, thwarted by the Official Secrets Act. Now all the evidenceOCoincluding EddieOCOs MI5 fileOCohas finally been released, paving the way for Nicholas BoothOCOs enthralling account of EddieOCOs long and extraordinary life. A film of "ZigZag" is in the works with Tom Hanks producing and Mike Newell directing."

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Biography, World War II, Espionage, Germany, War

505 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Nicholas Booth is a British author and broadcaster. Starting out as a science writer for national newspapers, he later worked in television and mobile publishing. Now he writes about unusual characters and unlikely events from history. His biography of the double agent Eddie Chapman, Zigzag, was highly acclaimed and will be made into a film. The Thieves of Threadneedle Street published in the U.S. by Pegasus Books is out now as a paperback. It was a pick of the week by Publishing News and a highlight of the season by The New York Times. Born in Cheshire in 1964, Nick lives there with his wife and their kittens.

Here is an interview with the author about The Thieves Of Threadneedle Street: http://mccormackwrites.com/2017/02/08...

Reviews

[Derek Nudd · Rating 4 out of 5]

There were parts of this story I had come across before, such as the amazing fake sabotage of an aircraft factory, but Nicholas Booth does an excellent and readable job of stringing the whole narrative together. He brings out the isolation of a double agent's life mirrored in the contradictions of Chapman's personality. Was he unfairly treated as someone from the wrong side of every imaginable track, or did his handlers accurately perceive an acute risk from a flaky character who was liable to go off on a tangent of his own imagining at any moment? Booth's sympathies naturally lie with his subject but he gives the reader enough latitude to make up their own mind.

[Gerald Sinstadt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eddie Chapman, the subject of Nicholas Booth's engrossing biography, was essentially a man of his time and generation. From a modest background in Sunderland, his craving for excitement led him to London where he mixed with criminals as a safe-cracker, to Jersey where he landed in prison, and to occupied France where he threw himself into the arms of German Intelligence. The Germans trained him as a spy and saboteur and parachuted him into England where he threw himself into the arms of British Intelligence. For the rest of the war he served as a double agent, returning to Germany and being parachuted back into England a second time.

These exploits, even in the highly-charged atmosphere of a major war, would simply be unbelievable were it not for the access the author has had to declassified Intelligence files and to the memories and papers of Chapman's widow. They make for a fast-moving, gripping narrative which benefits from Booth's placing of Chapman's escapades within the wider context of the war.

There are moments where the reader may feel the story doesn't quite hang together. On one page Eddie is said to have passed idle days in Paris on the tourist boats; the following page portrays a Paris of food shortages, disrupted rail services and the impossibility of tourism. There are references to "field security policemen,' but in my personal experience of field security towards the end of the forties neither I, nor any of my colleagues, would have seen ourselves as policemen. The mention of an army "captain" with "two pips" on his shoulder is a lapse in accuracy that could easily have been avoided.

But these are minor niggles which cannot ultimately detract from a detailed account of the life of an extraordinary man. Nicholas Booth's success is that he manages to stay neutral about his subject: alive to the man's charm and bravery but never blind to his unpredictable fecklessness. At the end, one is left with an ambivalent view of where Chapman's deepest loyalty lay. Probably it was to himself.

[Jill Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the story of Eddie Chapman, most notorious double agent for Britain during WWII. A safecracker, thief, womanizer and all-around scoundrel. While being imprisoned in a Jersey Island jail in the English Channel, the Germans take over the island. They learn of Eddie’s talent as a safecracker and employ him as one of their saboteurs He’s stationed in Nantes, France for most of his training and then sent to drop out over southeastern England to infiltrate London and to blow up the de Haviland airplane factory. Eddie gets caught and then goes to work for the British Secret Service for over a year before he gets sent back to Germany which is quite dangerous for him. The story is very interesting and the influence for Terrance Young’s first James Bond movies. (Eddie knew Terrance). The style of writing was sometimes hard to plod through with the use of military words and British slang. Sometimes, I didn’t know what they were talking about and it slowed down my reading by quite a bit. Would have been better if written in more friendly terms for the non-military person.

[Jukka]

ZigZag - Nicholas Booth
truth <= stranger <= fiction. If this was fiction you wouldn't believe it.
This i guess is the authorized version. There must have been a race at some point when Macintyre and Booth found out about each other's work. The competition probably benefited both.
This book is well detailed and well researched. It's pretty incredible; the pacing is that the main part of the book is the detail for about four years and then a one chapter Epilogue for 1945 to 1997 where things get even crazier. Seems to me there's another book here.
One small complaint is the author’s style of telegraphing the punch.

[Terri · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story isn't a literary masterpiece but it is engrossing. It seems like a fictional story at times and has most of the qualities I love in a novel - an intriguing and fallible main character, a compelling historical setting, a touch of mystery and suspense, a well-meaning but clueless bureaucracy, some minor tyrants, and even a touch of romance. In this age of high-tech espionage, both international and corporate, it was interesting to learn some of the early innovations utilized by the cloak and dagger set.

[Robbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A truly great read: I admire the author's skill.

A truly great story and true. The detailed reviews are out there: no need for me to add to the list,

In times of war people step-up-to-plate: Eddie Chapman was crook and the war turned the man into a hero who it can be said, probably saved many lives.

Worth the time and the money - I recommend this book.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story of Eddie Chapman, a small time English thief who becomes a Nazi spy and later a double agent for MI5. Like its subject, the book is haphazard and disorganized. It is never clear if Chapman was a patriot or a traitor. It is an interesting story but it does not flow as well as I prefer.

[Janell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I give this a solid 3.5 stars. It was an interesting, albeit, information-packed book about how a spy -a double agent at that- worked and lived, schemed and planned, in wartime Europe. There was so much detail, however, that by the very end, I found myself skimming through the epilogue as I had no need to read detailed tidbits of fact that had been referenced throughout the book.

Whenever I hear the phrase "the man, the myth, the legend" from now on, I'll likely think of Eddie Chapman. Like anyone else, the man known to some as Zigzag was a fascinating mix of good and not-so-good character traits. What made his story rise above the mundane, for me, was how he managed to parlay all of those character traits into a lucrative life that not only served himself, but managed to serve those for whom he was working with during World War 2 (and after). No matter who he came into contact with, Eddie definitively seemed to make an impression. Even those who had reason to feel betrayed by him cannot in retrospect paint him in a bad light, which speaks to his larger-than-life personality. Not always an easy feat to achieve, but for all of his flaws he did it very well.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Zigzag takes its name from Eddie Chapman's code names; Chapman being one of the most successful double agents in all of World War II. His story is a fascinating one but, unfortunately, loses something in the telling. As a result, some of the "adventure" that so motivated Chapman is lost - and that assumes the reader makes it past Chapman's early (criminal) life and to his spy days.

Chapman was a serial safebreaker and petty criminal in the '30s, and found himself locked inside a Jersey jail when the Germans invaded. Seeking - always - to save his skin, Chapman offered to work for them, with an eye toward being sent back to England. His plan worked, and he was able to offer his services to the British, who used him to great affect in the latter years of the war.

I don't have any particular bones to pick with author Nicholas Booth. Zigzag is at least the fourth book I've read on World War II-era spying. With the exception of Operation Mincemeat (which I loved), I have been disappointed in all of them. I did not finish the one about Richard Sorge and was singularly unimpressed with the works on Vera Atkins and Roald Dahl's espionage career

[Ken Fitzgerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a delightfully wry voice, Nicholas Booth tells the fascinating true story of Eddie Chapman, aka Agent ZigZag, in WWII. A career criminal and con man before the war, Chapman continued running his game by persuading German captors to employ him as a spy against Britain, before turning on Germany to become a highly regarded double agent for Britain's M15 spy service. Chapman is a confounding but compelling character, and the book includes a thoughtful examination of the art of spycraft, including a surprisingly human exploration of the intense relationships between spies and their handlers. A gripping story, very well-told. The writer is a clever wordsmith, and his thorough account of Chapman's life is hard to put down. Thoroughly enjoyable.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredible true story of a "secret" agent Eddie Chapman who works for both the Germans and the British. Eddie is a small town criminal, womanizer and boozer who ends up in jail in the islands off the coast of France. When the Brits vacate the island upon the German invasion, Eddie and the rest of the prisoners become German prisoners. Eddie comes up with the idea of using his skills to betray the British in order to become in favor of his German captors and it works. His exploits are at times hilarious and unbelievable. Eddie survives the war and becomes part of MI-5. The book was a bit choppy, not told in necessarily chronological order so sometimes it was hard to follow.

[Mummalovesbooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic read made even more fascinating by the fact it’s based on true life events and the experience of a real life double agent!!!!
I couldn’t help but fall in love with the loveable rouge Eddie, his cheeky characteristic charm shines through and the drama and suspense in his real life antics are a fantastic read.
I loved this book and couldn’t put it down I definitely recommend it.

[Teri Siciliani · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting Story

Not very well written but a very interesting story. Definitely not well edited. Should have combined the first and second part of the book together to create a more fluid story.

[Fred Donaldson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dense with suspense

Thankfully the book speeds along with only the necessary details to keep the narrative moving. Lots of research is provided at the end in noes, bibliography and the index. Great reference for scholars, but fascinating read for suspense lovers.

[Walter T. Mara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read

This book was fascinating reading especially for someone like me, born in Europe during ww2. Obviously well researched, but some of th German words were rather mangled :=)

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting but not captivating

Eddie Chapman was brave, reckless, and not a good husband but a great double agent. It took me a long time to finish this book, because I liked others more and finished several between the beginning and end of this one!

[Lew Kaye-skinner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite a fascinating look into British espionage during WWII. It would be interesting to have a similar account from the German point of view.

[Allen Batchelar · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't really finish he book. There's just no other way to get rid of it off my reading list. Did not find the character or the story interesting.

[Graham Hill · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great story of wartime heroism and adventures that I highly recommend as an audio book.

[Richard Pearson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not bad; interesting back story to WWII

I enjoyed most of the book. At times it was a bit long but enjoyed the intrigue. It’s a story we don’t hear much about.

[Grant Mccrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Incredible" doesn't quite do justice to this man's exploits. Puts most fictional wartime stories in the shade.

[Scott Holstad · Rating 1 out of 5]

So very boring. Protagonist unimpressive and overrated. Utterly pointless book. Couldn't finish it. Not recommended.

[Stephwaters · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story is really quite incredible but I found the book a bit dull. I’m not sure if it was the writing or the pacing of the story. Still, I’m happy to have read it.

[Luci K. Subica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting

Interesting book. Reading this book makes a person wonder about war and people themselves. It wasn’t a wow book for me, just a little interesting.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you enjoy WWII history with a slant on spy efforts, you will enjoy this book. It is the non-fiction story of Eddie Chapman, one of Britain’s finest spies.

[Marty Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

An amazing story very-well told.


Eddie Chapman's war exploits are truly amazing. What a character! Author Nicholas Booth's research and telling of the story provides full details without getting into the weeds. The reader is allowed to be surprised and amazed in this thoroughly enjoyable story.

[Perky Texan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating story of a real-life double agent. Fun read. The amount of research to write this book is impressive. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

[Stephen Carlton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Compelling.,, couldn't put it down.

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mix of interesting stories and run-on details. It might have benefited from some paragraph breaks. It would have clarified when a time jump, or topic change happened from one paragraph to another

[Bonny Messinger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well told story of an elusive subject. Couldn't have been easy to piece together the story of someone so adept at deceiving.