Young Philby

by Robert Littell

When Kim Philby fled to Moscow in 1963, he became the most notorious double agent in history. A British intelligence agent since World War II, he had risen to become their chief officer in Washington. Exposure of other double agents led to the revelation that Philby had been working for Russia longer than he had been part of MI6. Now Robert Littell recounts the early years of this fascinating, flawed man who kept people guessing until the very end.

• ISBN10: 0715643282
• ISBN13: 9780715643280
• Publish Date: 8 November 2012 (first published 1 November 2012)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Duckworth Overlook
• Imprint: Gerald Duckworth & Co Ltd
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 288
• Language: English

Reviews

[Michael @ Knowledge Lost]

Kim Philby could possibly be the most notorious double agent in espionage history. Recruited by the Secret Intelligent Service during World War II, he began spying for the Russians on the British intelligence service. Robert Littell’s Young Philby follows what little we know about his early years up till what made him a great double (or should we say triple?) agent.

Kim Philby was a real high-ranking British intelligence officer who worked as a double agent serving as both an NKVD and KGB operative. Robert Littell takes what little we know about this famous spy and tries to recount a fictionalised version of his life, but does it really cover the truth? It’s hard to recount a story when you don’t know the real thoughts that went through the person’s head and I think this was the one major thing that was lacking. I can understand, being a fictionalised version of his life, the author didn’t want to speculate on his motivations, but I really wanted more on his psychological profile.

As an espionage novel goes, this is no John le Carré; there is a sense of complexity with the double agent idea but I found it really easy to follow. I love le Carré’s ability to write these massively complex espionage novels that really take you on a journey of the unexpected and I would have liked a bit more of that from Robert Littell but he was probably confined to the facts. This was a compelling read and I love a good spy story but I think the narrative did need a little more work to put it among the great espionage novels.

Fast pacedand shifting perspectives really helped driving this novel and the cover alone makes this book worth purchasing. If you don’t know much about the life of Kim Philby, this would be a good place to start; learn about the Cambridge Five, the defection to Russia or just explore a good cold war spy story. I’m glad I got a chance to read Young Philby; I didn’t know much about the man but he did have an interesting life. These fictionalised accounts of history may not be 100% accurate but they do make it easier to get a sense of what happened.

This review orginally appeared on my blog; http://literary-exploration.com/2013/02/12/book-review-young-philby/