To betray, you must first belong…
In June 1934, Kim Philby met his Soviet handler, the spy Arnold Deutsch. The woman who introduced them was called Edith Tudor-Hart. She changed the course of 20th century history.
Then she was written out of it.
Drawing on the Secret Intelligence Files on Edith Tudor-Hart, along with the private archive letters of Kim Philby, this finely worked, evocative and beautifully tense novel – by the granddaughter of Kim Philby – tells the story of the woman behind the Third Man.
A future classic:
THE TIMES‘A fine achievement’
WILLIAM BOYD‘Completely fascinating. A sophisticated and brilliantly constructed fictional retelling of a crucial relationship in 20th century espionage history. A tremendous achievement’
‘Atmospheric and rigorously researched’Sunday Times
LITERARY REVIEW‘Persuasive… involving… impressive’
CHARLES CUMMING‘A fascinating contribution to the literature of the Cambridge spies by a clever, nimble writer with some genuine skin in the game’
i NEWSPAPER‘Complex and powerfully written… a persuasive repurposing of the lives of real-life figures’
NEW STATESMAN‘A dextrous writer who gives her tale a quickening, thrillerish propulsion’
ERIN KELLY‘Mother, lover, revolutionary, spy… Philby’s stunning fourth novel thrusts this former bit-player in the Cambridge Spy scandal to the centre stage where she belongs… Her best book yet’
SARAH VAUGHAN‘Blending SIS files and imagined letters from her grandfather, Philby shines a spotlight on Edith Tudor-Hart as activist, spy and often desperate single, working mother’
MICK HERRON‘Completely absorbing’
JANE SHEMILT‘A tense and brilliantly structured story of power and intrigue’
HOLLY WATT‘Unforgettable… a fascinating exploration of a key moment in history and a stunning piece of fiction’
One of ‘the heirs to John le Carré’The Times ‘A tremendous achievement’ WILLIAM BOYD Sunday Times‘Behold the new Golden Age of Spy Kings’