What drove Blunt, Burgess, Cairncross, Maclean, and Philby into the hands of the Soviets?

With access to recently declassified documents and other neglected sources, this acute analysis of the world of intelligence examines how and why these men and others betrayed their country and what it cost Britain and its allies.

The book Enemies Within is a fresh account of Moscow's influence in Britain, recounting the stories of those who chose to spy for the Soviet Union. It also challenges the established assumptions about breaches of trust, corruption, and Establishment cover-ups that began with the Camelot, the disappearance of Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean the night of the ship to Saint-Malo in 1951.

In a book that is as intellectually fascinating as it is entertaining and enlightening, Richard Davenport-Hines traces the ties between individuals, networks, and organizations across generations, offering a study of character, both individual and institutional. At its core are the operational characteristics of boarding schools, the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, the Intelligence Service, the Foreign Office, MI5, MI6, and the Central Soviet Bureau.

Davenport-Hines narrates numerous stories of espionage, counterattack, and betrayal. With its extensive perspective, ambition, and academic encyclopedism, Enemies Within maps how the undermining of authority, the rejection of expertise, and the suspicion towards educational advantages began and how these have transformed the social and political character of modern Britain.

Pages: 672, Dimensions: 12.9x12.9cm