British Traitors: Betrayal and Treachery in the Twentieth Century

by Gordon Kerr

British Traitors explores the lives and motivations of a number of the traitors who betrayed their country during the twentieth century. From Kim Philby to Lord Haw-Haw, Wilfred Macartney to George Blake, the book Investigates what drives a person to commit that most heinous of crimes - treason.

256 pages, Paperback

Published October 20, 2022

About the author

Gordon Kerr was born in the Scottish new town of East Kilbride and worked in the wine trade and then bookselling and publishing before becoming a full-time writer. He is the author of numerous books in a variety of genres, including art, history, true crime, travel and humour. He has a wife and two children and lives in Hampshire and—when he can—South West France.

Reviews

[Jaz · Rating 2 out of 5]

you’d think a book about spies in the Cold War would be pretty interesting right? WRONG

[Richard · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very short comment as, honestly, I don’t I have the investment for a review. I picked this up as was advertised by the National Archives which have done some really good work on treason especially.
In a short book Kerr covers a range of “British” Traitors (although William Joyce, inevitably, receives a chapter), a few from the first world war but most based on informants to the Soviets. I cannot speak for the latter period but I found the later persons but the coverage of the WWII personalities, with which I have more knowledge was replete with numerous really basic (and uncontroversial) mistakes of fact which I find strange.

And, even without these, it is a book with precious little detail on the trials and offences (most were official secrets charges, it appears) for which the subjects convicted. I am not sure a reader would not gain as much from reading a few Wikipedia articles.

[Daniel Farabaugh · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an enjoyable book which fully described and developed the people at the core of it. The vinettes do not come together into a larger whole at times but they were interesting in themselves.