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My Silent War
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 MI6’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 Carré’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.
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 Carré’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.
240 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1968
61 people are currently reading
1587 people want to read
About the author
Kim Philby
5 books14 followersHarold Adrian Russell "Kim" Philby HotU OL ODN (1 January 1912 – 11 May 1988) was a British intelligence officer and a double agent for the Soviet Union. In 1963 he was revealed to be a member of the Cambridge Five, a spy ring which passed information to the Soviet Union during World War II and in the early stages of the Cold War. Of the five, Philby is believed to have been most successful in providing secret information to the Soviets.
Born in British India, Philby was educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge. He was recruited by Soviet intelligence in 1934. After leaving Cambridge, Philby worked as a journalist and covered the Spanish Civil War and the Battle of France. In 1940 he began working for the United Kingdom's Secret Intelligence Service (SIS or MI6). By the end of the Second World War he had become a high-ranking member. In 1949 Philby was appointed first secretary to the British Embassy in Washington and served as chief British liaison with American intelligence agencies. During his career as an intelligence officer, he passed large amounts of intelligence to the Soviet Union, including a plot to subvert the communist rule of Albania.
He was also responsible for tipping off two other spies under suspicion of espionage, Donald Maclean and Guy Burgess, both of whom subsequently fled to Moscow in May 1951. The defections of Maclean and Burgess cast suspicion over Philby, resulting in his resignation from MI6 in July 1951. He was publicly exonerated in 1955, after which he resumed his career as both a journalist and a spy for SIS in Beirut. In January 1963, having finally been unmasked as a Soviet agent, Philby defected to Moscow, where he lived until his death in 1988.
Born in British India, Philby was educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge. He was recruited by Soviet intelligence in 1934. After leaving Cambridge, Philby worked as a journalist and covered the Spanish Civil War and the Battle of France. In 1940 he began working for the United Kingdom's Secret Intelligence Service (SIS or MI6). By the end of the Second World War he had become a high-ranking member. In 1949 Philby was appointed first secretary to the British Embassy in Washington and served as chief British liaison with American intelligence agencies. During his career as an intelligence officer, he passed large amounts of intelligence to the Soviet Union, including a plot to subvert the communist rule of Albania.
He was also responsible for tipping off two other spies under suspicion of espionage, Donald Maclean and Guy Burgess, both of whom subsequently fled to Moscow in May 1951. The defections of Maclean and Burgess cast suspicion over Philby, resulting in his resignation from MI6 in July 1951. He was publicly exonerated in 1955, after which he resumed his career as both a journalist and a spy for SIS in Beirut. In January 1963, having finally been unmasked as a Soviet agent, Philby defected to Moscow, where he lived until his death in 1988.
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September 21, 2022
It's not often I explore what other Goodreads aficionados think of a book before I've read it — it's not that I don't care what other reviewers think (I very much do), but rather that I prefer to plough into something untainted.
However, on this occasion my eye was drawn to the first few opinions on My Silent War. And none were good.
Some considered Philby a traitor, others simply a bad writer. In both cases, the view was that the book was not one worthy of one's time.
And to a certain extent, despite coming from opposite ends of the spectrum so to speak, the commentators were right.
For years Philby was working for a foreign power while in the employ of our Government. Personally this doesn't bother me as we'll have people doing exactly the same. It's the game. We're happy to benefit, but don't like it happening to us.
But I can understand how some would take this as a slight against our nation.
Such a fact, however, has amazingly little to do with this book.
Philby didn't sit down to absolve his guilt (he has none), or to explain how he carried out his double life (he makes no mention of how or when he started working for Russia, or why). No.
My Silent War is all about score settling. The officers he was better than, the ones he bested, the ones who thought they had bested him — all get a mention in the same sneering tone.
This book is also Philby, as he did when he held the press conference he discusses in the closing pages, controlling the information, deciding what it is we need to know.
And, more importantly, deciding what we don't.
His arrogance seeps through every page — he genuinely believes he won and beat the system — but, at the same time, it's his undoing because by wanting to be the teller of his own tale we discover he's not a very good writer.
Phrases are mangled, spelling mistakes slip through, and in one key passage he dismisses the very thing the reader wants to know.
There are also times when his passages get so dull you feel pity for any person who ever had to read his intelligence reports.
But despite all the negative aspects of My Silent War, it's an important book and one worth reading.
He lets the occasional key bit of info through (he tipped off the Russians about Volkov), but also inadvertently lays out the plot for at least two Graham Greene novels. Not historically important, sure, but geekily fun to discover.
(As an aside, Greene and Le Carre — both former spies — have very contrasting views of the man.)
More importantly, it gives us some insight into a man who was doing what he believed to be the right thing. He may have betrayed a nation, but he was always true to himself.
Overall, My Silent War is unlikely to change your view of one of this country's most notorious spies — but from dull beginnings he does manage to ratchet up the tension as his time as a UK citizen comes to an end.
He may think he's telling the story he wants you to read, and he seems happy to spend whole chapters deliberately saying nothing — but it's what he doesn't actually say that tells us so much about the man.
It's not "addictive", as the cover tells us The Guardian described the book, but it is fascinating. And not for the reasons Philby intended.
However, on this occasion my eye was drawn to the first few opinions on My Silent War. And none were good.
Some considered Philby a traitor, others simply a bad writer. In both cases, the view was that the book was not one worthy of one's time.
And to a certain extent, despite coming from opposite ends of the spectrum so to speak, the commentators were right.
For years Philby was working for a foreign power while in the employ of our Government. Personally this doesn't bother me as we'll have people doing exactly the same. It's the game. We're happy to benefit, but don't like it happening to us.
But I can understand how some would take this as a slight against our nation.
Such a fact, however, has amazingly little to do with this book.
Philby didn't sit down to absolve his guilt (he has none), or to explain how he carried out his double life (he makes no mention of how or when he started working for Russia, or why). No.
My Silent War is all about score settling. The officers he was better than, the ones he bested, the ones who thought they had bested him — all get a mention in the same sneering tone.
This book is also Philby, as he did when he held the press conference he discusses in the closing pages, controlling the information, deciding what it is we need to know.
And, more importantly, deciding what we don't.
His arrogance seeps through every page — he genuinely believes he won and beat the system — but, at the same time, it's his undoing because by wanting to be the teller of his own tale we discover he's not a very good writer.
Phrases are mangled, spelling mistakes slip through, and in one key passage he dismisses the very thing the reader wants to know.
There are also times when his passages get so dull you feel pity for any person who ever had to read his intelligence reports.
But despite all the negative aspects of My Silent War, it's an important book and one worth reading.
He lets the occasional key bit of info through (he tipped off the Russians about Volkov), but also inadvertently lays out the plot for at least two Graham Greene novels. Not historically important, sure, but geekily fun to discover.
(As an aside, Greene and Le Carre — both former spies — have very contrasting views of the man.)
More importantly, it gives us some insight into a man who was doing what he believed to be the right thing. He may have betrayed a nation, but he was always true to himself.
Overall, My Silent War is unlikely to change your view of one of this country's most notorious spies — but from dull beginnings he does manage to ratchet up the tension as his time as a UK citizen comes to an end.
He may think he's telling the story he wants you to read, and he seems happy to spend whole chapters deliberately saying nothing — but it's what he doesn't actually say that tells us so much about the man.
It's not "addictive", as the cover tells us The Guardian described the book, but it is fascinating. And not for the reasons Philby intended.
October 6, 2020
Please give my Amazon review a helpful vote - https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-re...
This is a hard book to evaluate. The author, Kim Philby, was the most notorious traitor in the modern history of spycraft. During World War II, Philby joined MI5 - the British counter-espionage department working on British soil - then moved to the SIS (the former MI6) doing counter-espionage work on foreign soil. In that capacity, he became the head of the division responsible for all counter-espionage relating to the Soviet Union. After a stint in Turkey, Philby was assigned to Washington DC to work in the heart of American intelligence.
He did all this while serving as a secret Soviet intelligence officer, a mole, loyal to the Soviet Union, whose trafficking of information risked the safety of his family and friends in the interest of a country he had never visited.
The difficulty of this book is that Philby is still playing the "mole game"; he discloses nothing that is not already known and he misdirects attention simply to stay in practice. Philby offers virtually nothing about his inner life; his wife gets a single mention, and it is only about four pages from the end that he mentions his mother is still living in England. What they thought about his secret life or how he viewed their fates if he were uncovered or the Soviets prevailed, he offers not a clue.
The book starts around the start of World War II when Philby is brought in to MI5. Philby mentions that Guy Burgess was present in one of his recruitment meetings, but he fails to mention that he and Burgess were friends in Cambridge where Burgess was instrumental in Philby's recruitment to the Soviet cause. We get no information about how that took place. The only idea of Philby's motivations is that he believed that the Soviet revolution represented a way to a better world. He maintained that belief despite the atrocities committed by the Soviet Union because he believed that ultimately despite short-term failures, ultimately the Revolution would be vindicated. Besides Philby viewed himself as a soldier and soldiers did their duty even when they disagreed with national policies.
I had always been impressed with Philby's rise to power, thinking that it must have been the result of some singular mental power he had as a spy. That turned out not to be the case, although Philby had spent time acting as a spy in the field in Franco's Spain. In the book "Mine Were of Trouble" by Peter Kemp, Philby gets mentioned as one of four journalists in Spain hit by a bomb, killing the other three and seriously injuring Philby. Kemp and Philby were friends at Cambridge with obviously different political views since Kemp went to fight for the Nationalists in Spain. In this book, Philby mentions Kemp as a friend who described a run-in with Spaniards trained by Philby (working on behalf of SIS) in Kemp's book "No Colour nor Crest." Small world, indeed.
Philby's true gift lay with office politics. Philby rarely worked in the field when he was in MI5 or SIS. This book is filled with Philby's concerns with the quotidian world of administration, setting up an office and getting it properly staffed. Philby's keen interest was in the personalities around him. His descriptions of those personalities rival the best of John LeCarre, which is good for a reader interested in the staffing of SIS circa 1940 to 1950, but there is not a lot of nourishment to be gotten from the text.
The other effect of the book is to take down one's professional respect for the spy profession. Philby is often slighting about the abilities and intelligence of those around him, although there are some that he respects. But there was a lot of deadwood. The fact that Philby got into MI5 without a background check is notable as is the ease with which he was to get access to SIS files.
In the midst of these quotidian details, the chapter on the "Volkov Affair" stands out. Shortly after the end of the War in Europe in 1945, a Soviet diplomat, Volkov, presented himself at the British station in Istanbul with an offer of information about Soviet spies in Britain's Foreign Office and one who was the head of Britain's counter-espionage department. This information was handed to said spy. Philby looked at, agreed that it needed to be investigated, and then proceeded with all deliberation to head to Istanbul to vet Volkov. However, by the time that Philby got to Istanbul, Volkov had mysteriously disappeared.
Philby hints that he tipped off his "Russian friends," who put a bullet in Volkov's skull, but he doesn't admit it. It also becomes clear that Philby deliberately dragged out the process of getting to Istanbul so that the deed could be done before he got there, but Philby nowhere admits this.
In 1950, things came apart for Philby. He didn't know about the Venona Intercepts, but he was told that a Soviet spy in the Foreign Office under the code name of Homer was being investigated. The FBI had made a thorough hash of the investigation, but Philby knew it was a matter of time before Donald MacLean was identified as Homer. MacLean had been recruited at Cambridge by Burgess, but Philby had only met MacLean twice before. Since Guy Burgess was rooming with the Philby family, Philby had Burgess tip MacLean off, and the two ended up fleeing to the Soviet Union.
Attention then turned on to Philby - again, thanks to the unknown to Philby, Venona Intercepts. Philby was able to remain calm, knowing that MI5 did not have actionable legal evidence to use against him. He was terminated from SIS with a $4,000 pension but remained free and able to continue to work for the Soviets until 1963 when he finally came in from the Cold. Philby offers several scenarios for why he defected at that time, so his answer is unclear.
Ultimately, this book is frustrating for a variety of reasons. First, I developed a feeling like I have had with recent revelations of FBI corruption involving the abuse of FISA warrants during and after the 2016 election. It seems that the professionals consider themselves a class above the average person. In 1950, Philby received an indirect warning from a supervisor about his arrest, as if that was intended to cause him to defect. In 1955, the British government vouched for Philby's government career. Finally, in 1963, Philby was permitted to remain free while government agents were receiving his confession. It's almost as if "professional courtesy" extended to letting Philby go. All of this tends to show the incompetence of the Deep State long before our age. Either the Deep State wanted to give Philby every opportunity to escape, and thereby relieve them of their embarrassment, or its members are incompetent.
Second, there is Philby's attitude toward his service. In this book, Philby often says things that seem to token pride in the work he did for the British, work that he betrayed. He also expresses his respect for some of his superiors, people whom he was betraying. Philby allows that an undercover operative has to live his cover persona, but this is psychopathic.
Finally, there is the attitude of his friends, like Grahame Greene, who writes the foreword and finds in the memoirs the voice of his friend. Greene visited Philby several times after Philby fled to Moscow.
Friendship and loyalty are difficult things to give up, but Philby endangered the lives of every friend and family member that Greene had. Philby sent British agents into the Soviet Union knowing that they would be captured and shot. Philby worked for the victory of one of the most savage tyrannies in human history. Philby's life was a lie; he simply was not the person that Greene thought he was.
But what the heck, upper-class people have to stick together and what does a little genocide matter?
The ultimate mystery remains, why did Philby become a traitor? His explanation was that he expected the Revolution to bring in some utopia, despite the evidence to the contrary. Interestingly, we don't see any concern for the poor or hatred for the West or for capitalism anywhere in the book. In the end, as in the Hiss case, some mysteries remain.
This is a hard book to evaluate. The author, Kim Philby, was the most notorious traitor in the modern history of spycraft. During World War II, Philby joined MI5 - the British counter-espionage department working on British soil - then moved to the SIS (the former MI6) doing counter-espionage work on foreign soil. In that capacity, he became the head of the division responsible for all counter-espionage relating to the Soviet Union. After a stint in Turkey, Philby was assigned to Washington DC to work in the heart of American intelligence.
He did all this while serving as a secret Soviet intelligence officer, a mole, loyal to the Soviet Union, whose trafficking of information risked the safety of his family and friends in the interest of a country he had never visited.
The difficulty of this book is that Philby is still playing the "mole game"; he discloses nothing that is not already known and he misdirects attention simply to stay in practice. Philby offers virtually nothing about his inner life; his wife gets a single mention, and it is only about four pages from the end that he mentions his mother is still living in England. What they thought about his secret life or how he viewed their fates if he were uncovered or the Soviets prevailed, he offers not a clue.
The book starts around the start of World War II when Philby is brought in to MI5. Philby mentions that Guy Burgess was present in one of his recruitment meetings, but he fails to mention that he and Burgess were friends in Cambridge where Burgess was instrumental in Philby's recruitment to the Soviet cause. We get no information about how that took place. The only idea of Philby's motivations is that he believed that the Soviet revolution represented a way to a better world. He maintained that belief despite the atrocities committed by the Soviet Union because he believed that ultimately despite short-term failures, ultimately the Revolution would be vindicated. Besides Philby viewed himself as a soldier and soldiers did their duty even when they disagreed with national policies.
I had always been impressed with Philby's rise to power, thinking that it must have been the result of some singular mental power he had as a spy. That turned out not to be the case, although Philby had spent time acting as a spy in the field in Franco's Spain. In the book "Mine Were of Trouble" by Peter Kemp, Philby gets mentioned as one of four journalists in Spain hit by a bomb, killing the other three and seriously injuring Philby. Kemp and Philby were friends at Cambridge with obviously different political views since Kemp went to fight for the Nationalists in Spain. In this book, Philby mentions Kemp as a friend who described a run-in with Spaniards trained by Philby (working on behalf of SIS) in Kemp's book "No Colour nor Crest." Small world, indeed.
Philby's true gift lay with office politics. Philby rarely worked in the field when he was in MI5 or SIS. This book is filled with Philby's concerns with the quotidian world of administration, setting up an office and getting it properly staffed. Philby's keen interest was in the personalities around him. His descriptions of those personalities rival the best of John LeCarre, which is good for a reader interested in the staffing of SIS circa 1940 to 1950, but there is not a lot of nourishment to be gotten from the text.
The other effect of the book is to take down one's professional respect for the spy profession. Philby is often slighting about the abilities and intelligence of those around him, although there are some that he respects. But there was a lot of deadwood. The fact that Philby got into MI5 without a background check is notable as is the ease with which he was to get access to SIS files.
In the midst of these quotidian details, the chapter on the "Volkov Affair" stands out. Shortly after the end of the War in Europe in 1945, a Soviet diplomat, Volkov, presented himself at the British station in Istanbul with an offer of information about Soviet spies in Britain's Foreign Office and one who was the head of Britain's counter-espionage department. This information was handed to said spy. Philby looked at, agreed that it needed to be investigated, and then proceeded with all deliberation to head to Istanbul to vet Volkov. However, by the time that Philby got to Istanbul, Volkov had mysteriously disappeared.
Philby hints that he tipped off his "Russian friends," who put a bullet in Volkov's skull, but he doesn't admit it. It also becomes clear that Philby deliberately dragged out the process of getting to Istanbul so that the deed could be done before he got there, but Philby nowhere admits this.
In 1950, things came apart for Philby. He didn't know about the Venona Intercepts, but he was told that a Soviet spy in the Foreign Office under the code name of Homer was being investigated. The FBI had made a thorough hash of the investigation, but Philby knew it was a matter of time before Donald MacLean was identified as Homer. MacLean had been recruited at Cambridge by Burgess, but Philby had only met MacLean twice before. Since Guy Burgess was rooming with the Philby family, Philby had Burgess tip MacLean off, and the two ended up fleeing to the Soviet Union.
Attention then turned on to Philby - again, thanks to the unknown to Philby, Venona Intercepts. Philby was able to remain calm, knowing that MI5 did not have actionable legal evidence to use against him. He was terminated from SIS with a $4,000 pension but remained free and able to continue to work for the Soviets until 1963 when he finally came in from the Cold. Philby offers several scenarios for why he defected at that time, so his answer is unclear.
Ultimately, this book is frustrating for a variety of reasons. First, I developed a feeling like I have had with recent revelations of FBI corruption involving the abuse of FISA warrants during and after the 2016 election. It seems that the professionals consider themselves a class above the average person. In 1950, Philby received an indirect warning from a supervisor about his arrest, as if that was intended to cause him to defect. In 1955, the British government vouched for Philby's government career. Finally, in 1963, Philby was permitted to remain free while government agents were receiving his confession. It's almost as if "professional courtesy" extended to letting Philby go. All of this tends to show the incompetence of the Deep State long before our age. Either the Deep State wanted to give Philby every opportunity to escape, and thereby relieve them of their embarrassment, or its members are incompetent.
Second, there is Philby's attitude toward his service. In this book, Philby often says things that seem to token pride in the work he did for the British, work that he betrayed. He also expresses his respect for some of his superiors, people whom he was betraying. Philby allows that an undercover operative has to live his cover persona, but this is psychopathic.
Finally, there is the attitude of his friends, like Grahame Greene, who writes the foreword and finds in the memoirs the voice of his friend. Greene visited Philby several times after Philby fled to Moscow.
Friendship and loyalty are difficult things to give up, but Philby endangered the lives of every friend and family member that Greene had. Philby sent British agents into the Soviet Union knowing that they would be captured and shot. Philby worked for the victory of one of the most savage tyrannies in human history. Philby's life was a lie; he simply was not the person that Greene thought he was.
But what the heck, upper-class people have to stick together and what does a little genocide matter?
The ultimate mystery remains, why did Philby become a traitor? His explanation was that he expected the Revolution to bring in some utopia, despite the evidence to the contrary. Interestingly, we don't see any concern for the poor or hatred for the West or for capitalism anywhere in the book. In the end, as in the Hiss case, some mysteries remain.
December 18, 2009
Read this I guess in Germany around 1968. Having been steeped in TV's 'I Led Three Lives' I suppose I was primed for something like this, especially after probably having read Joe Heller's 'Catch 22'. I was particularly taken with Captain Yossarian's solution to the problem. Perhaps I was influenced by the gaming aspect to the action which may be closer to the bone than the 'logic' behind one's actions. The point being, like Gen Arnold . . . he got away, which in itself is not always the moral high ground, but I was rather taken with this story.
April 30, 2020
My Silent War presents Kim Philby's version of his career in MI6. The memoir begins during the Spanish Civil War, ending with Philby's activities during the Cold War. As such, the account offers a fascinating insight into areas of history seldom documented, written with succinct brilliance and occasional hilarity. The memoir was highly influential, inspiring a new genre of spy fiction subsequently developed by authors like John le Carré and Graham Greene. Raising the question of whether Philby could have been a triple agent, My Silent War is the perfect companion for a reading of Ben Macintyre's A Spy Among Friends.
April 3, 2011
Looking forward to learning a lot more about the Cambridge 5 a subject I am to my shame not well read on , turned out to be a most delightful read !
September 19, 2018
Fascinating book from the horses mouth, great writing!
December 10, 2013
The book is interesting and very well written (if you like extremely dry British humor) but it leaves out quite a lot. If you are interested, for example, in how and why Philby first became a Soviet agent, don't bother because he doesn't really explain the beginnings of the whole thing - he assumes his audience already knows, I guess. Mostly this is a history of Philby's career in British intelligence from the perspective of someone infiltrating it and the bulk of it is essentially a summing up of who Philby felt was competent and who he could easily exploit, with various hints dropped about why various operations were foiled by the Soviets or why they knew things they shouldn't have. Then towards the end there is an account of the period of initial suspicion around him and how he managed to dodge being caught, though his subsequent service in the Middle East is very much glossed over. I suppose given that he wrote the book in Moscow he was rather limited in what he could say directly, in any case the book is interesting and often funny in a sort of snarky way but if you want to know the full story you'll have to do a lot more other reading.
March 2, 2012
Certainly one of the better parts of my class on the Cold War. This book is short, and rather interesting because Kim Philby had no remorse for his actions. As you read his autobiography, you cannot help but be pulled into his world and at once develop a respect and disgust for him and his actions. Philby is one of the most interesting individuals from the Cold War era.
August 27, 2018
This first hand source is an exciting read for Cold War enthusiasts, although should be entered into advisedly. Written by Philby himself from his flat in Moscow - not long after his "defection". I say defection, but in actual fact he'd been a committed member of the Soviet secret service since young adulthood and therefore describes himself as a straightforward "penetration agent" rather than a double agent.
Written, as it is, from the perspective of an extant and ascendant Soviet Union, it doesn't contain any juicy exposition on the methods and mentalities of communist espionage. In fact, its almost possible to forget Philby is a working for the Soviets at all - although he discretely references his Soviet "colleagues" from time to time. The purpose of the book is plainly to embarrass the British and American secret services as much as possible, not to enlighten the reader as to the inner life of an arch-traitor.
Most of this book discusses the ins and outs of the formation of M16 under the pressures of WWII and is an interesting and informative document on that subject, irrespective of the significance of Kim Philby in the Cold War imagination.
For those ardent communist historians and ideologues, there are some nice moments of left wing exposition, mostly confined to the introduction. Especially a particularly lucid paragraph about why he endured in his secret, yet total, commitment to communism "even when it became clear things were going badly wrong" in the Soviet Union, and his view that the USSR was the "inner fortress of the movement" and must be defended at all costs.
All in all, not one for the casual reader seeking a bracing spy story, but will be of considerable interest to those with prior knowledge seeking a genuine (if carefully delineated) first hand account.
Written, as it is, from the perspective of an extant and ascendant Soviet Union, it doesn't contain any juicy exposition on the methods and mentalities of communist espionage. In fact, its almost possible to forget Philby is a working for the Soviets at all - although he discretely references his Soviet "colleagues" from time to time. The purpose of the book is plainly to embarrass the British and American secret services as much as possible, not to enlighten the reader as to the inner life of an arch-traitor.
Most of this book discusses the ins and outs of the formation of M16 under the pressures of WWII and is an interesting and informative document on that subject, irrespective of the significance of Kim Philby in the Cold War imagination.
For those ardent communist historians and ideologues, there are some nice moments of left wing exposition, mostly confined to the introduction. Especially a particularly lucid paragraph about why he endured in his secret, yet total, commitment to communism "even when it became clear things were going badly wrong" in the Soviet Union, and his view that the USSR was the "inner fortress of the movement" and must be defended at all costs.
All in all, not one for the casual reader seeking a bracing spy story, but will be of considerable interest to those with prior knowledge seeking a genuine (if carefully delineated) first hand account.
April 4, 2011
This is a difficult book to rate because it is so distasteful, in many ways, to read. I've read a half-dozen or so books on Philby/the Cambridge spies. Philby's version discloses a contemptuous and arrogant individual with a crabbed and constipated soul. He does not display even a misguided idealism. Still, it is is fascinating as a case study.
January 3, 2016
Truth may not be stranger than fiction. In the case of My Silent War, it is both more outrageous and less plausible. Kim Philby was the master double agent of all time. For a good fifteen years, he was at the heart of the British-American espionage effort against the Soviet Union. He rose to the top of the MI6-SIS, whichever you want to call it, network, and was the main point man in dealing with the Byzantine complexities and constant backbiting between the FBI and the CIA and other American spy agencies. Philby was urbane, witty, a close observer of everything that went on around him, and the ultimate old line British upper class scion. Nothing about him suggested that he was anything but a privileged insider in the Anglo-American diplomatic establishment. Yet the entire time he was a Soviet double agent, with access to the most inner secrets of the West during the cold war. He funneled more information to the designated enemy more than any spy in history, yet never lost his legendary British cool, even long after his role was at last unearthed. In the mid-sixties he escaped to Russia, where he lived out his life as an honored foreigner and wrote his memoirs.
For all his machinations, Philby may be remembered best as a writer. He started his career, and his ineffable style, as a journalist, editing a Nazi paper in Austria, then covering the Spanish Civil War thanks to the generous contributions of Generalissimo Franco. All the while, he was a tireless worker for the other side. In his journalistic career, which he pursued both before and after he became a spy, he developed a writing style nearly equal to his friend Graham Greene, superior to John Le Carre, who based his entire output on Philby and his Cambridge Five.
As a writer, Philby projects his personality to perfection. He is literary without overwriting, witty in a way that only a subtly snobbish Englishman of the upper class can be, and a devastating nailer of character. His method in introducing the many intelligence officers with whom he worked on both sides of the Atlantic is to give a couple of brief summary descriptive strokes that establish uniqueness, then put the person into interaction with others to add depth and complexity. No novelist has done it better. One almost has the impression that Philby created his own bizarre character in order to be able to write about him and the impossible adventures in which he was involved.
For all that, something is missing at the heart of My Silent War. We know what Kim Philby was like in public, but we have no idea who Kim Philby was. What drove him to take his collegiate infatuation with the Soviet Union and turn it into a lifetime of treachery? What made this quintessential Brahman dedicate his life to the workers' paradise which seemed so alien to his personality and background? How did he justify his actions as he maneuvered himself through the highest circles of British and American government, employing strategies that would be the model of double agent behavior for generations to come. Even last year, the film version of John Le Carre's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, based upon Philby's autobiography and quite inferior to it, garnered critical praise.
Perhaps we will never know what drove the inner Kim Philby as opposed to the outer one the world knows so well. But on one level it doesn't matter. He gave us some of the best autobiographical prose of the twentieth century. In the end, that is what makes him immortal.
For all his machinations, Philby may be remembered best as a writer. He started his career, and his ineffable style, as a journalist, editing a Nazi paper in Austria, then covering the Spanish Civil War thanks to the generous contributions of Generalissimo Franco. All the while, he was a tireless worker for the other side. In his journalistic career, which he pursued both before and after he became a spy, he developed a writing style nearly equal to his friend Graham Greene, superior to John Le Carre, who based his entire output on Philby and his Cambridge Five.
As a writer, Philby projects his personality to perfection. He is literary without overwriting, witty in a way that only a subtly snobbish Englishman of the upper class can be, and a devastating nailer of character. His method in introducing the many intelligence officers with whom he worked on both sides of the Atlantic is to give a couple of brief summary descriptive strokes that establish uniqueness, then put the person into interaction with others to add depth and complexity. No novelist has done it better. One almost has the impression that Philby created his own bizarre character in order to be able to write about him and the impossible adventures in which he was involved.
For all that, something is missing at the heart of My Silent War. We know what Kim Philby was like in public, but we have no idea who Kim Philby was. What drove him to take his collegiate infatuation with the Soviet Union and turn it into a lifetime of treachery? What made this quintessential Brahman dedicate his life to the workers' paradise which seemed so alien to his personality and background? How did he justify his actions as he maneuvered himself through the highest circles of British and American government, employing strategies that would be the model of double agent behavior for generations to come. Even last year, the film version of John Le Carre's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, based upon Philby's autobiography and quite inferior to it, garnered critical praise.
Perhaps we will never know what drove the inner Kim Philby as opposed to the outer one the world knows so well. But on one level it doesn't matter. He gave us some of the best autobiographical prose of the twentieth century. In the end, that is what makes him immortal.
July 30, 2018
Beautifully written ‘confession’ by perhaps the most famous spy of all time
With a forward by Graham Greene, this book, ‘The Autobiography of a Spy’ is an articulate and well-detailed account of how Kim Philby went about his business.
One of the group known as the ‘Cambridge Spies’, Philby details his rise to ‘power’ in a gripping and entertaining way.
And yet, at the end of it all, the reader will have to ask himself if the whole truth is being told – the book having been scrutinised and sanctioned by the Russians – and also bear in mind the many, many agents who lost their lives directly due to Philby’s interventions.
Sméagol
Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of this book to review
With a forward by Graham Greene, this book, ‘The Autobiography of a Spy’ is an articulate and well-detailed account of how Kim Philby went about his business.
One of the group known as the ‘Cambridge Spies’, Philby details his rise to ‘power’ in a gripping and entertaining way.
And yet, at the end of it all, the reader will have to ask himself if the whole truth is being told – the book having been scrutinised and sanctioned by the Russians – and also bear in mind the many, many agents who lost their lives directly due to Philby’s interventions.
Sméagol
Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of this book to review
December 21, 2014
This is Philby's own account of his life working in the British secret service (whilst spying for the Soviets). An absolutely fascinating perspective on events, the tale that launched a thousand spy novels. Although he pulls a veil over some areas, particularly his Soviet contacts, he is happy at other times to put the boot in on some individuals. I was reading this at the same time as Robert Harris's fictional account of the Dreyfus affair in France, and was struck by how accurately Harris managed to convey the petty office politics that life serving the secret service of your country seems to boil down to.
January 2, 2009
If you enjoyed John Le Carre's books about George Smiley, this is a book that makes them an even richer experience. Also, for those who like untrustworthy narrators of fiction, Philby is the real deal, a truly untrustworthy narrator of non-fiction.
It is hard to describe just how appalling Philby is. He writes an effective, and charming narrative of his life, but the almost complete lack of real feeling for other human beings enables him to essentially gloss over many of the terrible things he did. Read closely it is the bare bones record of a man who did truly despicable things.
It is hard to describe just how appalling Philby is. He writes an effective, and charming narrative of his life, but the almost complete lack of real feeling for other human beings enables him to essentially gloss over many of the terrible things he did. Read closely it is the bare bones record of a man who did truly despicable things.
November 27, 2020
This one surprised me. I fail to understand the extreme level of trustworthiness those he worked with, placed in him. Gullibility perhaps? You would have to know about some of the "close calls" explained in this book to understand what I mean. Lot of red flags in my opinion. Maybe it is only obvious to those that already know the real life conclusion. As the title says.... he was a spy! A very lucky one I might add.
May 10, 2018
One of the best things about this autobiography, aside from all the detail, is his vivid character descriptions: e.g. "He was merely stripped naked and propelled into the presence of the camp commandant, a monocled Prussian type called Stephens who punctuated his questions by slapping his riding-boots with a swagger-stick."
October 14, 2018
This was a very solid and engaging memoir. There will definetly never be a spy book like this one. It was fun, engaging and thrilling to read. His memory was immaculate, giving an amazing look into the inner workings of the SIS and the FBI of the time. I wish the book had been longer, for I found myself not reading just to prolonge the experience.
September 15, 2011
I don't endorse or hero worship Philby in any fashion; but its interesting to know what *they believe* makes them "tick", and also to comprehend the historical spin on matters we too often read only one side of in the news.
April 28, 2015
So this was really, really interesting, but I personally found it difficult to follow because I can never seem to wrap my mind around politics. Nevertheless, it was informative and enthralling.
Bonus points because a couple of little things in Foyle's War now make sense to me.
Bonus points because a couple of little things in Foyle's War now make sense to me.
December 4, 2015
A very interesting book from a traitor's perspective. Much of Philby's comments and opinions about people I found helpful.
August 13, 2018
Worth reading for the final 2 chapters, on Philby's "escape" - amazing insight into the contrasting lifestyle of a spy.
February 27, 2013
This book is worth reading if only to provide a personal perspective on the shadow war during WWII and the early Cold War.
An abundance of official relationships to individuals who are no longer prominent and laying out the organization of early British espionage via acronyms can make reading a little confusing but a guide at the front for the latter does help. Philby begins his espionage career in Spain prior to WWII and the confusion of the war makes it easy for anyone with some connections to get in. The organization is rife with petty rivalries and incompetents.
His characterizations of Hoover ( FBI), Angleton (CIA), and Allen Dulles (CIA) along with a host of other players and officials provides interesting sketches of individuals and how their personal quirks can affect the functioning of bureaucratic organizations. Philby notes an extreme dislike for Hoover and his organization's use of blackmail of American citizens to maintain his grip on power.
Not until his posting to Washington and Burgess' defection does Philby allude to his covert association with the USSR as well as possible knowledge of the activities of Burgess and Maclean. He spends a fair amount of time discussing his interrogations and his bouts with the media once he came under suspicion but does not provide underlying reasons for his treason other than his motivation was not money.
An abundance of official relationships to individuals who are no longer prominent and laying out the organization of early British espionage via acronyms can make reading a little confusing but a guide at the front for the latter does help. Philby begins his espionage career in Spain prior to WWII and the confusion of the war makes it easy for anyone with some connections to get in. The organization is rife with petty rivalries and incompetents.
His characterizations of Hoover ( FBI), Angleton (CIA), and Allen Dulles (CIA) along with a host of other players and officials provides interesting sketches of individuals and how their personal quirks can affect the functioning of bureaucratic organizations. Philby notes an extreme dislike for Hoover and his organization's use of blackmail of American citizens to maintain his grip on power.
Not until his posting to Washington and Burgess' defection does Philby allude to his covert association with the USSR as well as possible knowledge of the activities of Burgess and Maclean. He spends a fair amount of time discussing his interrogations and his bouts with the media once he came under suspicion but does not provide underlying reasons for his treason other than his motivation was not money.
July 5, 2013
I was expecting so much more of this book since Kim Philby was the most notoriously successful spy of the entire Cold War era, and quite possibly the most important secret agent who ever lived. And, it's not that Philby can't write, because he really can, yet his choice of material and his impartial approach seems to render his extraordinary life almost dry and dull. Kim Philby was a secret lifelong Soviet Communist who became the head of the British secret service, MI6, and betrayed or seriously compromised nearly all covert activity by every agent operating for the Americans and British, yet managed to remain in place and undetected for almost three decades. However, Philby's book never rises above, 'just the facts', and completely lacks emotional depth. This book should have been a thrill a minute, but comes across almost as flat and passionless as a Wikipedia entry.
John le Carre based his Smiley character on Kim Philby, and I think that the fictionalized account provides more realism than Philby's own autobiography. And this is most unfortunate since Kim Philby was a writer of exceptional quality, and I'm mystified that he chose to tell the story of his most exceptional life with such a dearth of excitement.
John le Carre based his Smiley character on Kim Philby, and I think that the fictionalized account provides more realism than Philby's own autobiography. And this is most unfortunate since Kim Philby was a writer of exceptional quality, and I'm mystified that he chose to tell the story of his most exceptional life with such a dearth of excitement.
April 19, 2020
Fascinating read for those of us interested in the Cambridge Spies. Philby has zero remorse or second thoughts of his life as a very highly placed spy for the USSR, no interest in exploring his motives, no loyalty to his friends who were also part of this espionage group. Quite interesting to read after having read biographies of him. Also zero mention of his wives and his personal life.
November 10, 2016
While academically interesting, this is a dry read. Either he left out the most interesting stuff, or real tradecraft isn't all that interesting in of itself. I suspect the latter.
I liked how he dismissed people as they left his autobiography. There will be a line like, "Henry and I never crossed paths again. He was killed when the submarine transporting him to Morocco was sunk by the Germans."
I liked how he dismissed people as they left his autobiography. There will be a line like, "Henry and I never crossed paths again. He was killed when the submarine transporting him to Morocco was sunk by the Germans."
April 4, 2020
One has to read it assuming that Philby has some kind of agenda and that there is a certain amount of propaganda and censorship at play here. If you bear that in mind the lack of both nuance and detail are as expected. This reads as a pretty simple narrative, there are a couple of glimmers that indicative that this could have been a much better book, but it remains a kernel of unfulfilled promise. It also ends rather abruptly.
December 2, 2020
The most interesting parts of this autobiography are most likely those that Philby was forced to remove. It was almost like a book with all the boring side stories left in without any substance. I’d much rather read about his political views and his work with the Soviets than the minor office politicking and structural issues in the British foreign service. With that said, I really enjoyed his scathing portraits of colleagues and other acquaintances.
November 12, 2009
Foreword by Graham Greene, who says it reads better than any spy novel. Philby was a pariah over here after making a run for it to Moscow in 1963. Burgess and Maclean followed later, and Blunt - the fourth man - later still. Philby said he put up with the Stalin years as a Catholic would put up with the Inquisition, remaining true to his beliefs despite the bad times.
March 1, 2013
Starts off slow and is fairly tedious going for a decent chunk of the book but sparks into life towards the end. The real interest and best discussion regarding this memoir though lies to a great extent outside the book itself. Reactions to Philby can expose a great deal about a persons politics and worldview.
December 29, 2014
An interesting take that merits more of a review than I can provide over a mobile phone keyboard...it isn't really his autobiography as much as it is his recounting of his time in intelligence. Shines an interesting light on the times and activities of the British and the Soviets. Probably required reading for anyone looking to read the other books on Philby that are popular right now.
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