THE CLIMATE OF TREASON Five who Spied for Russia

Hardback. Reprint (same yr. as 1st). Espionage, the author writes, is the second oldest and arguably the least honourable of the professions. How did it happen that 3 young men, all contemporaries, all members of the English upper class, all products of public schools, and Cambridge University, should join the profession in the service of the Soviet Union and, over a period of years, consistently betray their country? The author looks at the political and social background to the whole amazing episode. Philby, Burgess and Maclean are the best-known of the undergraduates recruited by the Communist Party at Cambridge in the 1930s, because they were the extreme cases, the men who actually spied against their country. But as far as membership of the Party was concerned, they were only the tip of the iceberg. How did it come about that so many young men in that particular university, in that particular decade were active members, young men who in later life were to become pillars of the establishment in politics, the arts, the professions? On making his detailed researches the author has not only come up with some fascinating answers to these questions, but has also uncovered other secret agents of the Soviet Union - the mysterious fourth man, 'Maurice' who worked so hard for the Party in Cambridge, who tipped off Maclean about his imminent arrest, and who subsequently made a confession of his lies and misdeeds to the security services, and even a fifth man, 'Basil', an eminent British atomic scientist who was recruited by the Russians to advise Maclean in Washington about the secrets they needed to know and who is now an American citizen. Ilus., Epilogue, Notes and Index. 504pp. lge. 8vo. h/back. Vg+ in Vg+ dw. A fairly heavy book which will require additional postage, particularly if shipped overseas.