The many lives of Cold War double agent George Blake
I was beguiled when I met the notorious British spy in Moscow, but the charm wore off fast when I considered the man’s life.
George Blake in 1992. He didn’t feel British enough to betray Britain: “To betray you first have to belong. I never belonged.” AP
When 98-year-old double agent George Blake died in Moscow on Boxing Day last year, my biography of him was long since ready.
Blake was a one-man Netflix series whose life tracked many of the dramas of the 20th century. A Briton raised in the Netherlands, he was a teenage courier in the Dutch resistance, joined the British secret services, converted to communism while a prisoner in North Korea and became a spy for the KGB. He then sent dozens of agents working for Britain to their deaths.
Financial Times
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