The Shadow Man: At the Heart of the Cambridge Spy Circle

by Geoff Andrews

James Klugmann appears as a shadowy figure in the legendary history of the Cambridge spies. As both mentor and friend to Donald Maclean, Guy Burgess and others, Klugmann was the man who recruited promising students deemed ripe for conversion to the communist cause. This perception of him was reinforced following the release of his MI5 file and the disclosure of Soviet intelligence files in Moscow. These revealed his key part in the recruitment of John Cairncross, the so-called ‘fifth man’, as well as his pivotal war-time role in the Special Operations Executive in shifting Churchill and the allies to support Tito and the communist Partisans in Yugoslavia. In this book, Geoff Andrews reveals Klugmann’s story in full for the first time, uncovering the motivations, conflicts and illusions of those drawn into the world of communism and the sacrifices they made on its behalf.

Genres: Nonfiction, Espionage

289 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 30, 2015

Reviews

[Denise · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've read quite a bit about the Cambridge Spies and have comes across James Klugmann's name a time or two. Interesting topic, but I can't say the writing was particularly engaging... as evidenced by the fact that despite my general fascination with all things espionage-related, I yawned my way through large sections of this book.