Cover image for Agent Sonya : the spy next door / Ben Macintyre.
TITLE:
Agent Sonya : the spy next door / Ben Macintyre.
Publication Date:
2020-2021
Publication Information:
[S.I.] : Signal, McClelland & Stewart,
Physical Description:
xviii, 397 p., [16] p. of plates : ill., maps.
Bibliography Note:
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary:
In 1942, in a quiet village in the leafy English Cotswolds, a thin, elegant woman lived in a small cottage with her three children and her husband, who worked as a machinist nearby. Ursula Burton was friendly but reserved, and spoke English with a slight foreign accent. By all accounts, she seemed to be living a simple, unassuming life. Her neighbors in the village knew little about her. They didn't know that she was a high-ranking Soviet intelligence officer. They didn't know that her husband was also a spy, or that she was running powerful agents across Europe. Behind the facade of her picturesque life, Burton was a dedicated Communist, a Soviet colonel, and a veteran agent, gathering the scientific secrets that would enable the Soviet Union to build the bomb. This true-life spy story is a masterpiece about the woman code-named "Sonya." Over the course of her career, she was hunted by the Chinese, the Japanese, the Nazis, MI5, MI6, and the FBI--and she evaded them all. Her story reflects the great ideological clash of the twentieth century--between Communism, Fascism, and Western democracy--and casts new light on the spy battles and shifting allegiances of our own times.
Language:
English
ISBN:
9780771001963