Stalin's Englishman

Guy Burgess, the Cold War, and the Cambridge Spy Ring

By: Andrew Lownie

Narrated by: Steven Crossley

Length: 14 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's summary

Guy Burgess was the most important, complex, and fascinating of "The Cambridge Spies" - Maclean, Philby, Blunt - brilliant young men recruited in the 1930s to betray their country to the Soviet Union. An engaging and charming companion to many, an unappealing, utterly ruthless manipulator to others, Burgess rose through academia, the BBC, the Foreign Office, MI5, and MI6, gaining access to thousands of highly sensitive secret documents which he passed to his Russian handlers.

In this first full biography, Andrew Lownie shows us how even Burgess's chaotic personal life did nothing to stop his penetration and betrayal of the British Intelligence Service. Even when he was under suspicion, the fabled charm which had enabled many close personal relationships with influential establishment figures (including Winston Churchill) prevented his exposure as a spy for many years.

Through interviews with more than 100 people who knew Burgess personally, many of whom have never spoken about him before, and the discovery of hitherto secret files, Stalin's Englishman brilliantly unravels the many lives of Guy Burgess in all their intriguing, chilling, colorful, tragi-comic wonder.

©2015 Andrew Lownie (P)2017 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Lownie brilliantly succeeds in painting a very complete picture of this British spy." ( Library Journal)

Excellent biography, excellent narration

Well-researched, superbly written portrait of an utterly odious individual and his ilk.
Narration is also excellent, with very few mispronunciations, even the Russian are passable - a rarity indeed!

Well researched but uninteresting

I had to stop after nine hours. The book appears well-researched but the story becomes tedious with needless repetition. Most of the nine hours I heard focused almost entirely on Guy Burgess’ life as a gay man chronicling his history of sexual relationships and the dissolution that increasingly characterized his pitiable life. While these were important aspects of the story, I don’t think readers need seven or more hours of this as prelude to that which was crucial….his life as a Soviet spy. Listening to this story helps explain the disdain some American intelligence officials held for their counterparts in Great Britain. It also gives additional credibility to fiction written under the name John Le Carre. How Guy Burgess was allowed to remain in positions of importance and rub elbows with the elite for as long as he did testifies to the foolishness of the Brits at that time and their devotion to a malignant class system that left them vulnerable to Stalin.

Needed my patience

Espionage is a favorite book subject of mine, especially if it's historically true. This one did not offer new insight. So many pages dwell on Burgess's homosexuality without a deeper pov.

Well worth it

A good and informative book. I binge listened to it, and will listen to it again.

The Key Operative

Guy was the key operative in the so-called Cambridge spy ring. NOT Philby, not Blunt, certainly not Maclean. He used his drunken flamboyance as a cover but he always knew what he was doing. Guy penetrated not only the Conservative party and the BBC and the Foreign Office and MI6; but the Soviet moles themselves. When he went to stay with Kim and Aileen in Washington in 1950, he wasn't just hanging around, he was spying on Kim.

The World's Worst Spy - But Interesting

This is a very interesting book because it shows that the conclusions of Alan Turing's personal story (Imitation Game) were a big lie. The star of this book is a basically a drunk, slothful, upper class, aristocratic, British pedophile with terrible personal hygiene. The guy was also openly a communist and openly gay. If Burgess could make passes on men, expense his child prostitutes in Turkey, and openly cavort with male prostitutes, then Turing's little crush on a particular dude was probably not a big deal. Burgess is JM Keynes with alcohol and state secrets to pass along to Moscow.

Funny that Burgess basically flaunts his left wing politics in front of MI5 and MI6 people for years, then they are shocked when the dude is a spy and working for the soviets.

Why this book is worth reading is that readers can understand how elite power networks can work. Even when the "elite" people are disasters, they still rise and thrive. The Cambridge 6 basically sold out their country because people just assumed they could not be evil traitors.

A Time Capsule

Burgess' life in a well drawn picture of British schooling and politics during the first half of the 20th century. Very enjoyable taste of another place and time. History the way I like it.

Dry and morose - not a spy thriller

This book was very dry and slow. It’s essentially just a statement of facts and hardly reads to be anything interesting. The performance is OK, and picked up a little bit towards the end, which salvages the 2 score. Otherwise, it’s really a dry and long read– just read a summary on Wikipedia and save yourself several hours.