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The Last Secret

Victor Rothschild and the Cambridge Spies

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The Last Secret

By: Roland Thomas
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On a cold February day in 1944, a British intelligence officer knelt in a Northamptonshire field, staring into a crate of onions. Hidden inside: Nazi explosives, bound for British ships, planes and factories. He began to dismantle the bomb, dictating every move into a field telephone. One slip, and he would be blown to pieces. His name was Victor Rothschild, and he was one of the richest men in England.

Darkly handsome, dazzlingly clever and unflinchingly brave, Rothschild was a rising star of British intelligence. He was also a Cambridge scientist, a first-class cricketer and heir to the legendary banking dynasty. He could have been anything he wanted. He chose to run MI5's counter-sabotage unit, disarming bombs and hunting Nazi agents.

Yet the greatest danger he faced, and his greatest sacrifice, was personal. His friends from Cambridge, Anthony Blunt and Guy Burgess, had shared his flat, his table and his trust. He helped them into positions of national importance, at the heart of British intelligence. Both were Soviet spies, traitors to Britain.

The Last Secret is a true story of loyalty and betrayal, courage and misjudgment. Drawing on newly released MI5 files and unheard testimony, it reveals for the first time the extraordinary scope of this decades-long cat-and-mouse game - Rothschild's obsessive struggle to clear his own name and bring his former friends to justice. Military Modern
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Critics' reviews

Super sharp and brilliantly executed, this is a dazzling debut. Thomas has achieved that rare thing: a balance of academic rigour and the novelist's eye for thrilling detail. The result is masterful (ALICE LOXTON)
A very fine and meticulously-researched examination of the extraordinary webs of political and espionage intrigue woven by Victor Rothschild. Roland Thomas' superbly-readable account neither lionises nor demonises this most complex of 20th century powerbrokers, but instead renders an admirably nuanced picture: highly recommended (TIM TATE, author of To Catch a Spy)
There have been too many mediocre books on the Ring of Five and their associates but this one - intelligent, well-written and critical - is actually very good (STEPHEN DORRIL)
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