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The Master Spy: The Story of Kim Philby, by Phillip Knightley
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- Sales Rank: #588475 in Books
- Published on: 1990-02-19
- Released on: 1990-02-19
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Paperback
- 292 pages
From Publishers Weekly
Knightley, who obtained a series of uncommonly frank interviews with Kim Philby not long before his death, has written an intimate portrait of the man widely regarded as the most successful penetration agent in the history of espionage. "The book is a journalistic coup of the first order," observed PW .
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Another book on Kim Philby? And Knightley's second ( Philby: The Spy Who Betrayed a Generation) on the same topic? Why? Knightley addresses these reservations by proving that his unique chance to interview the dying Philby in 1988 has produced a tantalizing, intimate story. The author's portrait is excessively personal and verges on a grudging sympathy. "Yes, Philby was a traitor," he admits. "But traitor to what, remains open to debate." Other books, like Robert Cecil's A Divided Life: A Biography of Donald Maclean (LJ 2/15/89), are not so kind to Philby et al. But this offers enough Philbyan tidbits and minutiae, from tales of the Cambridge days to the "hero's welcome" in Moscow in January 1963, that the reader will find it most satisfying. Well written for a well-worn tale, spiced with asides from numerous interviews.
- John Yurechko, Georgetown Univ . , Washington, D.C .
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Most helpful customer reviews
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful.
Philby, 101A
By F. S. L'hoir
This outstanding portrayal of Harold Adrian Russell Philby, honourable Westminster schoolboy, Cambridge graduate, war correspondent for The Times of London in the Spanish Civil War, respected colleague and head of Section V (Spain & Portugal); & later Section IX (anti-Soviet section) of the British Secret Intelligence Service, and successful Soviet penetration agent, or mole, in the same service, is not for anyone approaching the topic for the first time. Because of the complexity of the subject, it would be better to begin with the BBC DVD "Cambridge Spies," then John Fisher's "Burgess and Maclean," Seale & McConville's "Philby, The Long Road to Moscow," Penrose and Freeman's "Conspiracy of Silence," and Knightley's "The Second Oldest Profession" as a prelude, in order to familiarize oneself with the complex issues as well as the multifarious cast of characters. [Then read Philby's "My Silent War" & the rest of the vast corpus of literature on the topic.]. I first read this book several years ago and have come back to it three times. With each reading I become more appreciative of Phillip Knightly's dedication to the subject as well as his objectivity.
In the last years of his life, Philby--known to his colleagues as Kim--invited Mr. Knightley, a respected investagative journalist of The Sunday Times, to do a series of interviews in Moscow, where the spy had been living since he escaped from Beirut in 1963. Philby explained that the KGB wanted Graham Greene to interview him, but since Greene was a friend and former colleague in SIS, Philby believed that Knightley would me more objective, and therefore, less suspect as an interviewer.
As Knightley notes (p. 4), Philby's answers were verifiable by the archives of the various security services on both sides of the Cold War, and that Philby stipulated the ground rules in advance: that if the topic focused on "operational matters" of either service, he would not answer; he would answer other quetions as truthfully as possible, and that if he didn't know the answers to a question he would say so. There were those who felt that by interviewing Kim Philby, Phillip Knightly was being used as a tool of the KGB. Knightly himself, however, jumped at the chance to do the interview, explaining that "anything Philby said . . . would contribute something to our understanding of the man and his motives" and that if one is to learn from history, "the more we can learn from Philby affair the better" (5-6). Phillip Knightly concludes that no matter what one might think about the man who betrayed his country "for what he believed to the last were impeccable motives," in the final estimation, the fact remains that "professionally, as a spy, [Kim Philby was] in a class all by himself" (6).
Phillip Knightley's "Philby: KGB Masterspy," demonstrates this proposition admirably.
(The page numbers in this review refer to the 2003 edition, published in the UK by Andre Deutsch.)
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful.
The Person, The Puzzle
By elizabeth daniel
This book is the result of research, as well as in-person interviews with Kim Philby by Philip Knightley.
The puzzle of why a person would choose to live his life in a kind of extreme distortion of reality is difficult to comprehend. The deception, at the core of Philby's espionage, would eventually infect every part of his life. It was a huge price to pay, and so the ultimate fascination is: how did he do it and why.
Kim Philby had a decades long career in the art of high wire espionage, at the highest levels of British Intelligence. He has been a source of rage and fascination for those interested in World War 2, Post War espionage, Cold War intrigue and the notorious "Cambridge Five".
The author meticulously pieces together: the roots of Philby's devotion to an ideology (Marxism/communism); his career of deception; and the denouement - both politically and personally. The concept of betrayal is explored and revealed as a misconception, at least in Philby's enigmatic world.
Knightley's writing skills are uneven at best, but the facts and story carry the day here. At times the facts are breathtaking. Philby's choices locked him into a course that was irreversable if he was to survive. The extent of his actual commitment to communist ideology was tested through the disillusionment of the Stalin era and post-Stalin era. Many of the faithful held fast to a Marxist dogma that in Soviet practice was an abysmal failure. The evidence strongly shows that Philby was a true believer - or perhaps just a wily survivor. His brilliance at the game of espionage is irrefutable and with some luck as well, he lived out his final years in his gilded cage in the heart of his chosen country: a protected and lionized survivor of one of the most dangerous 20th century games.
The author spent many years researching his subject,seeking the actual, elusive Philby. To fill in gaps, that would have been absent from Philby's autobiography, was a goal. It was also an enormous coup for the author to be granted in-person interviews, lasting many days, with Philby at his home in Moscow. Philby died not long afterward. The interviews comprise the climax of an engaging and revealing book.
Did the author actually trust as truth nearly all that Philby said in the last interviews? The reader of this book can't help but suspect that the master spy was, until the end of his life, still the master manipulator.
This is an intriguing journey into the life and mind of one of the most notorious, successful spies of the 20th century.
19 of 23 people found the following review helpful.
Solid reporting, poor analysis
By newyork2dallas
Knightley scored a tremendous journalistic scoop in 1988 -- the ability to interview Harold Adrian Russell (Kim) Philby, the KGB's greatest success story in penetrating the West's intelligence services, in Moscow. Philby rose throught the ranks of British intelligence to become the head of Soviet counterintelligence in MI6 (Her Majesty's Secret Intelligence Service) even though he was a Soviet penetration agent (a mole). As it happened, the interviews with the then 76-year old Philby took place shortly before Philby died. Knightley then fashioned the interviews and his own previous research on the Cambridge spies (Maclean, Burgess, Blunt, Cairncross and Philby) into this semi-sympathetic biography. Knightley quotes Philby extensively, even on issues not directly related to Philby's actions; and a result is that the book is often a soapbox from the grave for Britain's worst traitor.
To his credit, Knightley jams the book full of insider facts and information on operations of the CIA, MI5 and MI6 (which is always referred to as SIS, the Secret Intelligence Service). He also shows both how good and lucky Philby was to not get caught. The book has a great deal of information and Knightley's research is thorough.
Unfortunately Knightley's conclusions are suspect. He makes some rather inane asides: claiming the Rosenbergs did not give any valuable information to the Soviets (he was later proven incorrect after the CIA declassified the Venona files); claiming that British newspapers would not publish Philby's writings when he had journalistic non-official cover if they had been found anti-Semitic (which is preposterous on its face if you read the Independent or Knightley's own Guardian; for anti-Israel readers, you'd be outraged at the Telegraph); and the ludicrous concept that J. Edgar Hoover cleared Philby of espionage. Hoover blew the whistle on Philby and attempted to push the issue (as Knightley shows), but the British Foreign Office and SIS covered up and denied the undeniable -- Philby's spying for the USSR -- yet Knightley attributes blame for this bungling to Hoover.
Other problems are found in Knightley's repeated failures to connect cause and effect, generally in the area of American distrust of British intelligence agencies. The US "McCarthyite" aura in the FBI and CIA that Knightley claims existed, and which he claims made SIS so reluctant to investigate American allegations that SIS had been penetrated by the KGB, did not exist because of Joe McCarthy's railing against Hollywood, but instead was a justified reaction to fears of Soviet penetration. US intelligence had known since 1937, when Walter Krivitsky defected from the USSR, that the Soviets had a mole in British intelligence (Krivitsky's information clearly pointed to Philby, no one in Britain looked, and the US did not have a full-time counterintelligence agency until the CIA was formed in 1948; Philby first came into the US picture as SIS liaison in 1949). In 1944-45 US intercepted the Venona transmissions to the USSR and deciphered them to learn that a Soviet agent (Maclean) was moving up the ranks in the British Foreign Office. By 1951, the US was closing in on Maclean (who had been re-posted in Turkey in '49 and back in the US in '51) with no help from the British. Maclean escaped, with help from Burgess. In 1951-52, the FBI and CIA began connecting Philby to the USSR. In the face of this, the SIS did nothing, and MI5 repeatedly bungled the Philby investigation.
Despite the vague moral equivalence Knightley displays, he nonetheless tells a well-researched tale that is worth a look for espionage-history fans.
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