Guy Burgess: The Spy Who Knew Everyone

by Stewart Purvis, Jeff Hulbert

Cambridge spy Guy Burgess was the supreme networker of his age. His contacts provided him with so many hard facts and so much insider gossip that his Moscow masters found it difficult to keep up with the flow of material. Stewart Purvis and Jeff Hulbert, who obtained the first recording of Burgess's voice from FBI files, have now discovered many more facts about Burgess and his contacts from previously secret sources.

This book reveals how, at the heart of Burgess's network was an inner cell of communist spies and sympathisers, who were influential in the British media in the 1930s and '40s. The outer layer of his network was made up of contacts, ranging from two prime ministers to celebrities in the arts and show business, who unwittingly gave him the inside track on British life.

This is the first British biography of Burgess and considers how this scruffy, smelly, sexually promiscuous, conspicuous drunk was such a successful Soviet spy that he was never challenged by Britain's spy-catchers. It culminates in new revelations about his final, lonely days in Moscow as 'the spy who knew nobody'.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Biography

368 pages, Hardcover

First published January 19, 2016

Reviews

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Cambridge Spies are a subject I find endlessly fascinating. This well-rounded, insightful and balanced biography of Guy Burgess, making ample use of new material declassified in 2015, proved to be just as intriguing and informative a read as I hoped when picking it up.

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

One key takeaway here is that if hadn’t been Burgess et al, it could easily have been others, because everything in Britain was based on the old boys’ / Oxbridge network, with minimal background checking, and this made the entire system very porous indeed. This despite the fact in Burgess’s case that he obviously carried on in a “quite extraordinarily dissolute and indiscreet” manner, dropping red flags in his path like confetti.

[Gary Evins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty long book, but comprehensive. So comprehensive that it lost me after five chapters.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

A detailed account of the life of the infamous Cambridge spy Guy Burgess, in which the authors conclude that the persona the world saw of him, was designed to support the idea that there was no way he could be a spy. An argument that is shown to have some merit here. Burgess' guile and immense networking skills allow him to move almost at will between sensitive departments of government, playing off key players against one another, so as to ensure no-one is entirely clear what he should and should not be doing. The level of autonomy given to such a relatively junior member of staff is startling. The irony of this story is that the fleeing of Burgess brought the rest of the Cambridge spy ring down prematurely, when it is likely that whilst he may have become less useful he would have continued to operate freely, alongside the fact that the KGB never truly trusted him, because of the high quantities of material he got access to and shared.

At times it can feel like the authors have written down everything the know and found out, including links to contemporary practices or issues that adds little to the book, some more careful editing would have been beneficial at times. An in depth study that shows the evolution of the man, until he fled and then his life in Russia, the significance or not of his head wound from falling or being pushed down a flight of stairs is explored at length, explaining his deterioration, rather than his general dubious hygiene and drunken lifestyle for which he was well known.

[PAUL · Rating 5 out of 5]

Meticulously researched and well-balanced account of the part played by one of the 'Cambridge Five'. The authors have done a damn fine job and I heartily recommend this book to all readers who are still intrigued by the shenanigans of the aforementioned Five'.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

A superb book, very well researched and very focused.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite a lengthy book but it gives you a different insight about Guy Burgess and his complex life. The author skillfully unravels Burgess's dual existence, blending charm and espionage, in a narrative that keeps readers spellbound from start to finish.