Summer of Spies: The Real Men of Espionage

Join biographers Henry Hemming (M: Maxwell Knight: England’s Greatest Spymaster) and Adam Sisman (Le Carré: The Biography) in conversation with Andrew Lownie (Stalin’s Englishman) as they discuss two of the most enigmatic figures in British espionage.

Maxwell Knight, rumoured to be the inspiration for the character M in the James bond series, he is seen today as one of MI5's greatest spymasters, despite an almost total lack of qualifications. What set him apart from his peers was a mercurial ability to transform almost anyone into a fearless secret agent. In M: Maxwell Knight: England’s Greatest Spymaster, Hemming reveals for the first time in print the names and stories of seven men and women recruited by Knight, on behalf of MI5, and then asked to infiltrate the most dangerous political organizations in Britain at that time.

Over half a century since The Spy Who came in from the Coldmade John le Carré a worldwide, bestselling sensation, David Cornwell, the man behind the pseudonym, remains an enigma. From recruitment by both MI5 and MI6, through marriage and family life, to his emergence as the master of the spy novel, Le Carré: The Biography explores the idea of espionage and its significance in human terms; the extent to which betrayal is acceptable in exchange for love; and the endless need for forgiveness, especially from oneself.

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