The Red Hotel: The Untold Story of Stalin’s Disinformation War (Hardback)

A riveting trip down the corridors of Soviet deception . . .Philps' book is almost faultlessly balanced between racy narrative and historical analysis A fabulous book, packed with untold stories, written with the lyrical empathy of an author who knows and feels his subject deeply The Red Hotel is a sizzling read full of bitchiness and high jinks. But it is also a deeply moral book, outlining a simple truth: that the press pack abroad often operates in a bubble and is deeply dependent on local translators and fixers. Philps has an eye for detail and a heart for those left behind as the press caravan moved on Philps adroitly uses the experiences of the wartime correspondents incarcerated in the Hotel Metropol in Moscow to tell at least part of the story of Stalin's campaign to dupe the West about the nature of his regime ... The Red Hotel gives a superb flavour of the compromises, betrayals and self-delusions require to report on the USSR Philps's book vindicates the value of truth, most of all by depicting the lengths that a rare few will go to share it Philps is terrific at training a spotlight on the local staff who are so often forgotten, and exposing the moral ambiguities of journalists The Red Hotel is a compelling and often horrifying tale of moral degradation and occasional heroism superbly told by a seasoned reporter Balanced between racy detail and historical analysis...a riveting study An engaging and insightful account...an experienced and accomplished foreign correspondent himself, Philps does an excellent job of recreating a sense of time and place A fabulous book, packed with untold stories, written with the lyrical empathy of an author who knows and feels his subject deeply.