Libri di Ben Macintyre migliori da leggere e consigliati

6 giugno 1944, D-Day. Il giorno che ha segnato le sorti della Seconda guerra mondiale e dell’Occidente intero. Un’immane operazione bellica. Dietro la quale c’è stata una prodigiosa azione di intelligence. O, meglio, di inganni. Al centro di tutta l’operazione, nome in codice “Fortitude”, c’era il sistema “Double Cross”, volto a trasformare le spie dei tedeschi in doppiogiochisti e a creare una squadra di agenti che, con coraggio e spregiudicatezza, è riuscita a convincere i nazisti che l’attacco alleato avrebbe avuto luogo a Calais e in Norvegia. I loro nomi in codice erano Bronx, Brutus, Treasure, Trycicle e Garbo. Un gruppo bizzarro quanto efficace, composto da una seducente peruviana bisessuale, un pilota mingherlino, una volubile francese, un playboy serbo e un allevatore di polli spagnolo. Non hanno combattuto sulle spiagge di Omaha, ma hanno salvato ugualmente migliaia di vite umane. Questa, raccontata per la prima volta, è la loro storia, che svela i retroscena della più grandiosa azione di depistaggio mai tentata. Ben Macintyre, con il suo stile narrativo accattivante e con rigoroso rispetto della documentazione storica, riesce a far rivivere sulla pagina non le tecniche e le strategie, ma gli uomini e le donne. Quegli uomini e quelle donne che hanno cambiato il corso della Storia.

The rumbustious true story of the Victorian master thief who was the model for Conan Doyle’s Moriarty, Sherlock Holmes’ arch-rival. From the bestselling author of ‘Operation Mincemeat’ and ‘Agent Zigzag’. Adam Worth was the greatest master criminal of Victorian times. Abjuring violence and setting himself up as a perfectly respectable gentleman, he became the ringleader for the largest criminal network in the world and the model for Conan Doyle’s evil genius, Moriarty. At the height of his powers, he stole Gainsborough’s famous portrait of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, then the world’s most valuable painting, from its London showroom. The duchess became his constant companion, the symbol and substance of his achievements. At the end of his career, he returned the painting, having gained nothing material from its theft. Worth’s Sherlock Holmes was William Pinkerton, founder of America’s first and greatest detective agency. Their parallel lives form the basis for this extraordinary book, which opens a window on the seedy Victorian underworld, wittily exposing society’s hypocrisy and double standards in a storytelling tour de force.

THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER ‘A master at setting the pulse racing’ Daily Mail ‘A fine feat of storytelling . . . will surely become the last word on the subject’ Telegraph _____________________________ THE INCREDIBLE TRUE STORY OF THE MOST INFAMOUS PRISON IN HISTORY — FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF SAS: ROGUE HEROES AND THE SPY AND THE TRAITOR In a forbidding Gothic castle on a hilltop in the heart of Nazi Germany, an unlikely band of British officers spent the Second World War plotting daring escapes from their German captors. Or so the story of Colditz has gone, unchallenged for 70 years. But that tale contains only part of the truth. The astonishing inside story, revealed for the first time in this new book by bestselling historian Ben Macintyre, is a tale of the indomitable human spirit, but also one of snobbery, class conflict, homosexuality, bullying, espionage, boredom, insanity and farce. With access to an astonishing range of material, Macintyre reveals a remarkable cast of characters of multiple nationalities hitherto hidden from history, with captors and prisoners living for years cheek-by-jowl in a thrilling game of cat and mouse. From the elitist members of the Colditz Bullingdon Club to America’s oldest paratrooper and least successful secret agent, the soldier-prisoners of Colditz were courageous and resilient as well as vulnerable and fearful — and astonishingly imaginative in their desperate escape attempts. Deeply researched and full of incredible human stories, this is the definitive book on Colditz. _____________________________ ‘Macintyre produces a highly nuanced and often disturbing tale of men struggling to get along in captivity . . .The Colditz story is told with sensitivity and insight, with an eye for telling detail’ The Times BOOK OF THE WEEK ‘Like watching a black-and-white photograph being colourised . . . Macintyre has thrown fresh light on Colditz and aligned the scratches left on its walls into another compelling narrative’ Spectator ‘Every Ben Macintyre book is a treat’ The Tablet

*Shortlisted for the 2018 Baillie Gifford Prize* *Shortlisted for the Specsavers National Book Awards 2018* *A top 10 Sunday Times bestseller* ‘THE BEST TRUE SPY STORY I HAVE EVER READ’ JOHN LE CARRE A thrilling Cold War story about a KGB double agent, by one of Britain’s greatest historians On a warm July evening in 1985, a middle-aged man stood on the pavement of a busy avenue in the heart of Moscow, holding a plastic carrier bag. In his grey suit and tie, he looked like any other Soviet citizen. The bag alone was mildly conspicuous, printed with the red logo of Safeway, the British supermarket. The man was a spy for MI6. A senior KGB officer, for more than a decade he had supplied his British spymasters with a stream of priceless secrets from deep within the Soviet intelligence machine. No spy had done more to damage the KGB. The Safeway bag was a signal: to activate his escape plan to be smuggled out of Soviet Russia. So began one of the boldest and most extraordinary episodes in the history of espionage. In The Spy and the Traitor Ben Macintyre reveals a tale of betrayal, duplicity and raw courage that changed the course of the Cold War forever. ‘Macintyre does true-life espionage better than anyone else. The Spy and the Traitor may well be his best book yet’ Evening Standard ‘A dazzling non-fiction thriller and an intimate portrait of high-stakes espionage’ Guardian ‘A real-life thriller, as tense as John le Carre’s novels, or even Ian Fleming’s’ Economist