Account

Company

  Menu

Description

The Cambridge Five - the most infamous spy ring in British history. Kim Philby, Anthony Blunt, Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean were the four. But who was the fifth man?

John Cairncross, born 1913 in Scotland, was the brilliant scholarship boy who made it to Cambridge University. It was here that he met Blunt and was introduced into Communist circles.

He worked right at the heart of the British Establishment - and was thus the perfect target for the KGB. During the war he was among the elite group recruited to Bletchley Park, the ultra-secret British code breaking unit, where he had access to the communications of the German military. In 1944, he joined M16.

John Cairncross was under suspicion for a large part of his life but was never directly accused by the British state of spying. In this riveting memoir, first published in 1997, he tells his story.

He was trapped by Cambridge contemporary James Kluggman into helping the KGB - but he was determined to pass to the Russians only such information as he judged vital to help them defeat the Nazis. At Bletchley, he found a way to hand intelligence to his KGB handler, which enabled the Russians to defeat Hitler at the battle of Kursk.

John Cairncross expresses no liking for the Cambridge spies, who all belonged to a social class above his own. Nonetheless he is commonly assumed to be the fifth man of their ring. Readers can judge for themselves. What is in no doubt is the brilliance of his mind, and Enigma Spy is a fascinating, firsthand account of double dealing and espionage during the Second World War.

This 2021 edition includes a foreword from Cairncross' widow Gayle Cairncross Gow, who helped him to write and edit this memoir.

Praise for The Enigma Spy:
'John's memoirs document the prolonged and tortuous self-examination which led him in 1943, while at Bletchley Park, to pass to the Russians crucial information derived from Enigma decrypts about the strength and location of the Luftwaffe. These enabled the Red Army to win the battle of Kursk, which proved a turning point in the war' - Gayle Cairncross Gow - The Guardian

'Fascinating and enjoyable. A must-read for spy story lovers' - Goodreads

John Cairncross - 1913 - 1995 - was a British Civil Servant. He was also a gifted linguist and published translations of French poetry, as well as writing his own book on Moliere, and a study of polygamy in medieval Europe, When Polygamy became a Sin. He spent his last years in the south of France with his wife, American opera singer Gayle Brinkerhoff, where he was a close neighbour of his friend and supporter novelist Graham Green. He was portrayed in 2014 film The Imitation Game and appears as the fifth of the Cambridge Spies in Frederick Forsyth's novel The Deceiver.

Tag This Book

This Book Has Been Tagged
It hasn't. Be the first to tag this book!

Our Recommendation

Track It. This book has been £0.99 within the past year.

Notify Me When The Price...

  • £
  • If I'm already tracking this book...

to track this book on eReaderIQ.

Track These Authors

to track John Cairncross on eReaderIQ.

  • to be notified each time the price drops on any book by John Cairncross.
  • to stop tracking John Cairncross.

Price Summary

  • We started tracking this book on November 4, 2021.
  • This book was £2.99 when we started tracking it.
  • The price of this book has changed 6 times in the past 876 days.
  • The current price of this book is £2.99 last checked one day ago.
  • This book is at its lowest price in the past 90 days.
  • This lowest price this book has been offered at in the past year is £0.99.
  • The lowest price to date was FREE last reached on November 27, 2021.
  • This book has been FREE one time since we started tracking it.
  • The highest price to date was £2.99 last reached on August 6, 2023.
  • This book has been £2.99 4 times since we started tracking it.
  • This book is currently at its highest price since we started tracking it.

Genres

Additional Info

  • Text-to-Speech: Enabled
  • Lending: Disabled
  • Print Length: 245 Pages
  • File Size: 2,371 KB

We last verified the price of this book about one day ago. At that time, the price was £2.99. This price is subject to change. The price displayed on the Amazon.co.uk website at the time of purchase is the price you will pay for this book. Please confirm the price before making any purchases.