Agent Sonya

Ben MacintyrePublished: 27/05/2021

£8.99

In stock

In the quiet Cotswolds village of Great Rollright in 1942, a thin, and unusually elegant, housewife emerged from her cottage to go on her usual bike ride. A devoted mother-of-three, attentive wife and friendly neighbour, Sonya Burton seemed to epitomise rural British domesticity. However, rather than pedalling towards the shops with her ration book, Sonya was heading for the Oxfordshire countryside to gather scientific secrets from a nuclear physicist. Secrets that would enable the Soviet Union to build the atomic bomb. Far from an obedient homemaker, Sonya Burton was a dedicated communist, a decorated colonel and a veteran spy who risked her life to keep the Soviet Union in the nuclear arms race. In ‘Agent Sonya’, Ben Macintyre reveals the astonishing story behind the most important woman spy in history and the huge emotional cost that came with being a mother, a wife, and a secret agent at once.

ISBN: 9780241986950 Category:

Description

THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER

Discover the incredible true story of WW2’s most extraordinary spy – from the bestselling author of The Spy and the Traitor.

‘His best book yet’ The Times
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From planning an assassination attempt on Hitler in Switzerland, to spying on the Japanese in Manchuria, to preventing nuclear war (or so she believed) by stealing the science of atomic weaponry from Britain to give to Moscow, Ursula Kuczynski Burton conducted some of the most dangerous espionage operations of the twentieth century.

Born to a German Jewish family, as Ursula grew, so did the Nazis’ power. A fanatical opponent of the fascism that ravaged her homeland, she was drawn to communism as a young woman, motivated by the promise of a fair and peaceful society. She eventually became a spymaster, saboteur, bomb-maker and secret agent.

In Agent Sonya, Britain’s most acclaimed historian vividly reveals the fascinating tale of a life that would change the course of history. Classic Ben Macintyre – a gripping ride, based on meticulous research, that reads like a novel – this is the greatest spy story never told.
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‘Macintyre has found a real-life heroine worthy of his gifts as John le Carré’s nonfiction counterpart’ New York Times

‘This book is classic Ben Macintyre . . . quirky human details enliven every page’ Clare Mulley, Spectator

‘She is the strongest character of all in Macintyre’s bestselling series of wartime tales . . . I raced through the pages to keep up with the plot’ Julian Glover, Evening Standard

BEN MACINTYRE’S NEXT BOOK COLDITZ: PRISONERS OF THE CASTLE IS AVAILABLE TO BUY NOW!

Additional information

Weight 0.3 kg
Dimensions 19.8 × 12.9 × 2.5 cm
Author

Publisher

Imprint

Cover

Paperback

Pages

xxii, 377

Language

English

Edition
Dewey

327.1247041 (edition:23)

Readership

General – Trade / Code: K

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