Achieve Anthony Blunt: His Lives Narrated By Miranda Carter Listed As Paper Copy

a few books have been written about the Cambridge spies, and there are other books about Anthony Blunt, All that I have read focus on espionage and tend to the polemical, Carter's treatment of Blunt it different, Painstakingly researched, this book delves into much more than Blunt's treason, discussing in depth his academic career, personal relationships, and much more, What results is a detailed portrait of a very enigmatic man still not a particularly flattering portrait, in my opinion, Along the way, the reader meets quite an assortment of the odd people who made up much of England's academic and intelligence communities in thes,s, ands.
Carter's occasional comments on trying to sort through the various accounts of events offered up by these people is illuminating: apparently it is quite difficult to ascertain facts from the mishmash of egodriven screeds, gin and whiskeybesotted commentaries, and government disinformation that make up so much of the literature about this period.
Carter does an admirable job of parsing the data into an interesting biography, Many readers may find the length and detail of this book overwhelming, Those interested in Cold War espionage and the larger context within which it existed will find it worth the effort, Grandísimo ensayo muy bien documentado pero su faceta de espía, si bien lo trata a pinceladas a lo largo de todo el libro, no es como para subtitularlo como un libro de espías.
A well written and researched book on a man well documented,
Really, really good book about Anthony Blunt Englishman who was spy for the Russians, a homosexual at the time when that was a crime, a worldfamous art historian and knighted by Queen Elizabeth.


This book was incredibly well researched and atpages, a wee bit of a slog but a brilliant picture of such a complex and inexplicable man.


One of the best and most surprising biographies I ever read, Very interesting life story of a controversial man, I felt sorry for Anthony Blunt when he was exposed, Whatever he had done wrong he regretted, He was also a minor figure in the Cambridge spy ring compared to the other three, Burgess, Philby and Maclean, He was active in World War II when the USSR was an allied nation, not the Cold War when it become the enemy, When he was berated by the Prime minister and the press it had been over thirty years since he was a Soviet agent, The story is a textbook example of how heartless and cruel the mainstream media can be, How many people just believe it unquestioningly and join what is effectively a lynch mob, Many people have done far worse than Blunt and the press leaves them in peace, or even celebrates them! Look at Jimmy Savile, Hmm hmmm hhmmmmm, very odd book, Completely obsessive details of everyone this man attended a party with, kind of reminded me of college who went to what party culture except I never cared then and these guys care up until the day they die and it makes it so boring! Even if the people he was going to parties with were famous poets, which I can't say that half the people I went to college with even read a poem unless forced.
I honestly did not know who he was before reading the book, kind of thought he was someone interesting and distinguished but this makes being a success at Cambridge or in the Art world seem insanely dull and easy to do.
Did teach me a lot about British Bloomsbery movement and little bit Spanish Civil War, And also being a spy during WWII way way more simple and boring than you would think, spying was SO easy before the computer tech age,

Well written however, author is true Anthony Blunt tradition is meticulous and brings together a plethora of random facts into clear

plots and themes, However, much of what she has to go on is opinion or hearsay so hard to take as fact which makes everything about this man go up to question.
Which may be the point, we will never know who Anthony Blunt is, I really wanted to like this book but it felt a little tough to get through, There were many facets to the glittering career of Anthony Blunt art historian, director of Courtauld, international art expert, spy, Surveyor of the Queens Pictures and establishment figure.
But what he is best remembered for is his betrayal for he was a traitor,

In this book, Carter has written a forensic dissection of his life, from the privileged education at Marlborough and Cambridge, his early career in the art world, courtier to the royal family and war work in the intelligence services and post war activities where he built his reputation as an academic in the art world.
In his early days he held very Marxist views and these were reflected in his articles and writing, A contemporary of Burgess, Maclean and Philby he was one of those recruited whilst at Cambridge by the Soviets, He passed a number of secrets to them during and after the war, nothing to the level of Philby, but crucial information nonetheless, Rather than this being just a principled ideology, he accepted a number of payments from them, After leaving MIhe was passed papers from Burgess to courier to them,

Burgess and Maclean defected and slowly the net closed in, Philby was sacked from MIand the investigations were started on those that knew or were associated with these spies, Blunt was one of those suspected, but there was no evidence initially, but slowly through the smoke and mirrors came the evidence that they needed, The spies extracted a confession from Blunt, and quietly brushed the scandal under the carpet, with the intention of releasing the story after he had died, Inthough his treachery was revealed in Parliament by Thatcher, All his honours and knighthoods were stripped and he was hounded by the press,

This was a fascinating book to read in lots of ways, The amount of detail in here is immense too, even covering his visits to post war Germany to recover letters and artworks for the King, Carter has covered with almost clinical precision probably everything that you could ever want to know about Blunt the others from the Cambridge ring play second fiddle in the book to Blunt as well, making the focus mostly on him.
Blunt could have so easily not been a spy, if the right opportunity had presented itself at the time, but his Marxist sympathies and Cambridge contacts meant that he became one.
It was not done out of principle either, he was paid for some of the material that he supplied showing that he was committed to these actions.
The spy agencies at the time never thought that people from the establishment would ever betray their country, How wrong they were.

And having been betrayed, the establishment then sought to protect their own, .