Agent Zigzag: A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love, and Betrayal | Ben Macintyre

Agent Zigzag: A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love, and Betrayal | Ben Macintyre | Impressive on all accounts

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Agent Zigzag: A Tr...

	Agent Zigzag: A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love, and Betrayal Ben Macintyre Harmony, 2007 - 384 pages average customer review:based on 22 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Eddie Chapman was a charming criminal, a con man, and a philanderer. He was also one of the most remarkable double agents Britain has ever produced. Inside the traitor was a man of loyalty; inside the villain was a hero. The problem for Chapman, his spymasters, and his lovers was to know where one persona ended and the other began.

In 1941, after training as a German spy in occupied France, Chapman was parachuted into Britain with a revolver, a wireless, and a cyanide pill, with orders from the Abwehr to blow up an airplane factory. Instead, he contacted MI5, the British Secret Service. For the next four years, Chapman worked as a double agent, a lone British spy at the heart of the German Secret Service who at one time volunteered to assassinate Hitler for his countrymen. Crisscrossing Europe under different names, all the while weaving plans, spreading disinformation, and, miraculously, keeping his stories straight under intense interrogation, he even managed to gain some profit and seduce beautiful women along the way.

The Nazis feted Chapman as a hero and awarded him the Iron Cross. In Britain, he was pardoned for his crimes, becoming the only wartime agent to be thus rewarded. Both countries provided for the mother of his child and his mistress. Sixty years after the end of the war, and ten years after Chapman’s death, MI5 has now declassified all of Chapman’s files, releasing more than 1,800 pages of top secret material and allowing the full story of Agent Zigzag to be told for the first time.

A gripping story of loyalty, love, and treachery, Agent Zigzag offers a unique glimpse into the psychology of espionage, with its thin and shifting line between fidelity and betrayal.

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Total satisfaction

What a pleasure to sit down with 'Agent Zigzag'. It makes you never want to pick up another spy novel in your life, so extraordinary and particular are the experiences of Zigzag, aka, Eddie Chapman. It's the little things that convince. Without giving anything away, who knew that the British Intelligence services wasted time looking for 'Bobby the Pig' when Bobby the pig was simply Chapman's pet pig mentioned when he was learning to send coded messages? Mcintyre's account occasionally slips towards mocking German Intelligence who certainly had their fair share of successes, but that takes little away from the sheer thrill of following Chapman back and forth between England, France and Germany. Certainly to this reader, it was an intriguing mixture of psychological study and page turning adventure.

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Impressive on all accounts

If you are an early baby-boomer, then you will perhaps have heard bits and pieces of Chapman's story over the past 30-40 years as rumors and occasional releases of previously classified MI5 materials came to light. Finally, it appears, the whole tale can be told and quite a story it is. With the opening of all the files, the tale of this extraordinary young man--successes and failings--comes to light. The author does good work, indeed. Worth the hardcover price.

Will have you riveted from beginning to end, very entertaining!

This is a fast paced, exciting story of spy craft and adventures by the most successful double agent of WWII, Eddie Chapman. Ben Macintyre working from recently declassified documents has structured a narrative that cries out mini-series or major motion picture. The amazing story begins with Chapman in jail leaving behind a trail of petty crimes and safe crackings and many jilted women only to be captured by the Germans to whom he volunteers. Instead the Germans have him and a friend shipped to a prison in France. And here in a twist of fate ends up being trained as a German spy who is eventually is awarded the Iron Cross for completing his missions successfully. The Germans never guess that while in England Chapman (Agent ZIGZAG to the British) turns double agent and is involved in many of the most top secret misinformation campaigns of the war. He is interrogated over and over by both the Germans and British and also has time to find women to befriend, and handlers to be loyal too. Chapman is ultimately pardoned by the British for his roll spying for the British. The narrative is a believe it or not true story that will have you riveted from beginning to end. This is simply the most entertaining book I have read in some time. If it were a novel you would never believe it. Why this has not found its way on to the best seller list is beyond me you should not miss Agent ZIGZAG.

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Agent Zigzag by Marcia

Agent Zigzag: A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love, and Betrayal

Very interesting true story of a double spy (Britain and Germany) during
WWII. After the correspondence from wartime had been released, the author pulled together thousands of details and presented a very informative behind-the-scenes look at the life of a spy on both the Nazi
and British sides of the war. A fascinating peek at wartime in both
countries, as well as the amazing life of a double spy!

Not a fast read, but a very interesting one!

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

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