Catching Fire

Nota 9

TRAITORS: Communists and the Making of Modern Britain is a book written by Richard Davenport-Hines, published in 2019, at HarperCollins Publishers. Richard Davenport-Hines is a British historian and literary biographer, best known for his biography of the poet W. H. Auden. This book provides a detailed analysis of Russian/Soviet espionage in the UK, starting from the Revolution through the Cold War. But it's more than a mere retelling of the old spy stories : what the author tracks is how these stories shaped the perception of the secret services, of Russia/Soviet Union, and of the trustworthiness of government as a whole. There's a cast of thousands : zealots, rogues, dupes caper in and out of the story. I had a hard time keeping up with all the characters, but that probably just reflects the limitations of my memory. The book can also be funny, with some choice descriptions of the colorful characters that made up the secret services during and after WWII. It's a long, dense read, and I recommend it more for people who are interested in the history of the UK.