A wealthy playboy, incorrigible womaniser and dedicated gambler, Dusko Popov was one of Germany's most trusted spies, one of Britain's most successful double agents, and, some say, the inspiration for James Bond. With full access to FBI and MI5 records, along with private family papers, his incredible adventures can now be told authoritatively for the first time. Recruited by the Abwehr in 1940, 27-year-old Popov immediately offered his services to the British. His wry code-name was Tricycle, said to derive from his proclivity for nocturnal threesomes. Throughout the war he fed the Germans with a constant stream of military 'intelligence', all vetted by MI5, and came to be viewed as their most important and reliable agent in Britain; the information he supplied about the strength of the British armed forces after Dunkirk influenced German estimates for the remainder of the war. But when, in June 1941, he was ordered by the Abwehr to the United States to report on the defences at Pearl Harbour, J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the FBI, failed to heed his warnings, distrusting all spies and detesting Popov in particular, whom he considered to be 'a moral degenerate'. Facing the danger of
- ISBN10 0436210231
- ISBN13 9780436210235
- Publish Date 5 August 2004
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 1 July 2005
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Vintage Publishing
- Imprint Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 304
- Language English