Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.
Start by marking “Treachery: Betrayals, Blunders & Cover-ups: Six Decades of Espionage Against America & Great Britain” as Want to Read:
Treachery: Betrayals, Blunders & Cover-ups: Six Decades of Espionage Against America & Great Britain
by
From noted intelligence authority and author Chapman Pincher comes an utterly riveting book that reveals in startling detail sixty years of Soviet spying against Great Britain and the United States. Using a huge cache of recently released documents and exclusive interviews, Pincher makes a compelling new case that-as he has long believed-the head of Britain's own counterin
...more
Get A Copy
Hardcover, 679 pages
Published
September 18th 2009
by Random House (NY)
(first published 2009)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Reader Q&A
To ask other readers questions about
Treachery,
please sign up.
Be the first to ask a question about Treachery
This book is not yet featured on Listopia.
Add this book to your favorite list »
Community Reviews
Showing 1-30
Start your review of Treachery: Betrayals, Blunders & Cover-ups: Six Decades of Espionage Against America & Great Britain
The author may be 95 years old, but don't be fooled, he could get the jump on many writers in their 20s. He seems to be as passionate, as determined, and as agile as any writer one quarter of his age. (And that can't happen to frequently)
His style is a delight, and his subject matter is captivating, no less because its importance to the author is clear. Unfortunately, it's sometimes hard to believe that a major intelligence agency could be as inept as he shows the MI5 to be. The only thing MI5 s ...more
His style is a delight, and his subject matter is captivating, no less because its importance to the author is clear. Unfortunately, it's sometimes hard to believe that a major intelligence agency could be as inept as he shows the MI5 to be. The only thing MI5 s ...more
Fascinating book - massive in its scope and in its physical size!
It might seem astonishing that the author was 98 years old when this book was completed. However, it is the latest example of an extraordinary life-time of achievement by this British journalist. Pincher was a school-teacher and science graduate when he first put pen to paper in order to supplement his the salary from his teaching work at Liverpool Institute. His articles explaining various aspects of science and engineering helped ...more
It might seem astonishing that the author was 98 years old when this book was completed. However, it is the latest example of an extraordinary life-time of achievement by this British journalist. Pincher was a school-teacher and science graduate when he first put pen to paper in order to supplement his the salary from his teaching work at Liverpool Institute. His articles explaining various aspects of science and engineering helped ...more
Authoritative and enthralling
I am a lifelong follower of the topic of Soviet espionage in the US and the UK. This book is the best researched and documented that it has been my pleasure to read!
Yet the story never flags. I carried it on vacation to visit my children and it rarely left my hand Any time I encountered a delay I read. I thoroughly enjoyed my flight delays. When everyone went on a boat excursion I felt guilty secret delight.
I strongly recommend this book to anyone who cares about s ...more
I am a lifelong follower of the topic of Soviet espionage in the US and the UK. This book is the best researched and documented that it has been my pleasure to read!
Yet the story never flags. I carried it on vacation to visit my children and it rarely left my hand Any time I encountered a delay I read. I thoroughly enjoyed my flight delays. When everyone went on a boat excursion I felt guilty secret delight.
I strongly recommend this book to anyone who cares about s ...more
Despite it's long title - this book doesn't quite have an accurate title. From the title and even the dust jacket synopsis, it's easy to believe that this book is a comprehensive unpacking of the various spy rings that spied on the UK and the US - and it's not.
What this book is, is a detailed take down of Sir Roger Hollis former head of MI5, who the author very convincingly argues was a Soviet mole. Every section of this book that talks about the activities and prosecution of a British spy has a ...more
What this book is, is a detailed take down of Sir Roger Hollis former head of MI5, who the author very convincingly argues was a Soviet mole. Every section of this book that talks about the activities and prosecution of a British spy has a ...more
Although interesting, this book is too full of details to read through now. I made it to page 217, and I'd like to finish it some day, but not right now. It tells about the spies who infiltrated the British government (and therefore were privy to USA secrets also at times) and reported back to the USSR. It starts before WWII and looks like it continues through the 90s and perhaps up to 2000. I was able to read to about 1945 - right in the middle of the atomic implications of this spy craft. I ho
...more
Treachery is a difficult book to get through, not least because of the emotional impact of the seemingly endless line of British traitors who damaged the U.S. as well as their own. Pincher is keenly aware of, and apologetic for, this treachery, notwithstanding that he contributed much to its disclosure and that we have home grown traitors as well--perhaps as protected as the British. Nonetheless, his revelations are depressing and, even with some prior reading, require careful attention to keep
...more
This book is a fascinating read, not just because it makes such a compelling circumstantial case that Roger Hollis, chief of MI5, was an agent for the GRU, but also because of the detail about the careers of so many others during what was a disastrous almost four decades of Soviet penetration of British intelligence and the British government. Yes, the book is very long. It's worth reading every word, nevertheless.
...more
My introduction to British intelligence history was Ramsay & Dorril's biography of Harold Wilson, Smear. Chapman Pincher makes frequent appearances there as a key media outlet for right-wing molehunters, and one of the interesting things about Treachery is that he is quite open about some of his sources.
...more
Massive 620 page book! Pincher has compiled a slamming indictment against the head of MI5 Hollis and MI5 itself.
The only think to add is that there is so much smoke and mirrors in the spy game that I cannot tell how true all this is. That said, the evidence points at Hollis being a GRU spy, and that that was the opinion of several other agencies. Worth a read if you like spy books.
The only think to add is that there is so much smoke and mirrors in the spy game that I cannot tell how true all this is. That said, the evidence points at Hollis being a GRU spy, and that that was the opinion of several other agencies. Worth a read if you like spy books.
Interesting topic, but could have been a few hundred pages less in volume as a lot of the material was repeated in unneeded detail
The hisroy of lies is infantessimal. I don't know if I spelld that right. Read the book anyway..
...more
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
Readers also enjoyed
Harry Chapman Pincher was an Indian-born British journalist, historian, and novelist whose writing mainly focused on espionage and related matters, after some early books on scientific subjects.
Harry Chapman Pincher was born in India in 1914 while his father was serving in the British Army. After moving to Great Britain, Chapman Pincher studied first at Darlington Grammar School and then King's Co ...more
Harry Chapman Pincher was born in India in 1914 while his father was serving in the British Army. After moving to Great Britain, Chapman Pincher studied first at Darlington Grammar School and then King's Co ...more
News & Interviews
As dedicated readers already know, some of the best and most innovative stories on the shelves come from the constantly evolving realm of...
53 likes · 16 comments
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
