The True Story of Geoffrey Pyke: Genius, Fugitive, Spy

Churchill's Iceman

The extraordinary untold story of an enigmatic genius who changed warfare forever

Hemming makes Geoffrey Pyke a fascinating object of study

This admirable and thoroughly enjoyable book should rescue a weirdly original and innovative talent from oblivion

Hemming has told his story in a biography that reads wonderfully like an adventure story and looks set to restore to Pyke the fame he deserves

This is a fascinating biography […] Hemming succeeds in celebrating the achievements of this true original

It is as if he had been invented by G. K. Chesterton and given posthumous fame by John le Carré – which underlines the extraordinary accomplishment of his actual biographer Henry Hemming

They say truth is stranger than fiction – and never more so than in this riveting biography

Throws fascinating light on a forgotten hero of the Second World War

An unlikely tale of true espionage ... Fans of Graham Greene and Alan Furst will revel in this well-told true-life story

[A] masterful biography…Hemming's superlative text is nearly as nimble as Pyke's mind, and he reveals who this remarkable innovator really was

Henry Hemming is the author of five works of non-fiction, including the Sunday Times bestseller M, the Dolman Travel Award-shortlisted Misadventure in the Middle East and Churchill’s Iceman, a New York Times bestseller. He has written for the Economist, The Sunday Times, FT Magazine and the Washington Post, among many others. He lives in London with his two children.

From the author of the Sunday Times bestseller, M: Maxwell Knight, MI5's Greatest Spymaster 
 
In the World War II era, Geoffrey Pyke was described as one of the world's great minds. An inventor, adventurer and polymath, he was an unlikely hero of both world wars. He earned a fortune on the stock market, founded an influential pre-school, and is seen as the father of the U.S. Special Forces. 
 
In 1942, he convinced Winston Churchill to build an aircraft carrier out of reinforced ice. He escaped from a German WWI prison camp, wrote a bestseller, and aided Republicans in the Spanish Civil War. He even launched a private attempt to avert the outbreak of the Second World War by sending into Nazi Germany a group of pollsters disguised as golfers. 
 
And he may have been a Russian spy. 
 
70 years after his death, Henry Hemming reveals Pyke's astonishing story in full: his brilliance, his flaws, and his life of adventures, ideas, and secrets.

Henry Hemming

Fascinating biography ... Hemming has done a superb job

Excellent biography… The author has done a terrific job of unscrambling Knight’s muddled life

Jaw-droppingly revelatory biography. *****

‘Compelling new biography… Hemming has done a wonderful espionage job of his own, scouring obscure files to bring long-hidden agents and their exploits to light. It is also a gripping portrait of an era, now long gone, when the establishment could accommodate such extravagant oddness.

Henry Hemming has found a peach of a subject... Full of new material, fresh interpretations and uncompromising integrity... He has managed the great feat of producing a rattling good read that is also a major piece of revisionist history

Hemming has written a very readable, thoughtful and comprehensive account

I raced through Henry Hemming's book, constantly having to remind myself that it wasn't a work of fiction. It really has everything you'd want from a great espionage story: incredible agents risking their lives; the highest possible stakes, with the safety of the world hanging in the balance; and at its heart a complicated, mercurial spy master in Maxwell Knight spinning an ever more intricate web.

Matt Charman, Oscar-nominated screenwriter of 'Bridge of Spies'

Lively contribution to a maverick literature

Crammed with cracking stories and founded on sound research, Henry Hemming’s biography of Maxwell Knight – ‘M’ – stands comparison with the bestselling books of Ben Macintyre.

Absolute proof that assiduous digging in the archives can produce scoops. This is intelligence research at its best, especially in the identification of hitherto anonymous agents. Definitely a great contribution to the literature.

A fascinating portrait of a complex man. Espionage writing at its best.

Charles Cumming (Author of A Divided Spy)

A cracking read, which both informs and entertains in equal measure.

Henry Hemming's excellent new life of Maxwell Knight [...] the most convincing, balanced and intricate biography of this extraordinary figure.

‘A terrific life of the brilliant and eccentric spymaster’

This is a terrific book, well researched and superbly written

Hemming tells a story of great interest, bringing to light the exploits of an eccentric and magnetic personality, a man able to keep his professional and private lives rigorously separate and who fully justifies his posthumous reputation

Hemming gives an engrossing account of the remarkable life of a great eccentric

Maxwell Knight, MI5's Greatest Spymaster

*** The Sunday Times bestseller *** 
 
'Vividly imagined and prodigiously researched' Helen Davies, Sunday Times, Books of the Year 
 
 'Such a rewarding read' John Preston, Daily Mail, Books of the Year 
 
'This odd, secretive man is brought to life', Robbie Millen, The Times, Books of the Year 
 
Maxwell Knight was a paradox. A jazz obsessive and nature enthusiast (he is the author of the definitive work on how to look after a gorilla), he is seen today as one of MI5's greatest spymasters, a man who did more than any other to break up British fascism during the Second World War – in spite of having once belonged to the British Fascisti himself. He was known to his agents and colleagues simply as M, and was rumoured to be part of the inspiration for the character M in the James Bond series. 
 
Knight became a legendary spymaster despite an almost total lack of qualifications. What set him apart from his peers was a mercurial ability to transform almost anyone into a fearless secret agent. He was the first in MI5 to grasp the potential of training female agents. 
 
M is about more than just one man however. In its pages, Hemming reveals for the first time in print the names and stories of seven men and women recruited by Knight, on behalf of MI5, and then asked to infiltrate the most dangerous political organizations in Britain at that time. Until now, their identities have been kept secret outside MI5. Drawn from every walk of life, they led double lives—often at great personal cost—in order to protect the country they loved. With the publication of this book, it will be possible at last to celebrate the lives of these courageous, selfless individuals. 
 
Drawing on declassified documents, private family archives and interviews with retired MI5 officers as well as the families of MI5 agents, M reveals not just the shadowy world of espionage but a brilliant, enigmatic man at its centre.

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Praise for M

Fascinating biography ... Hemming has done a superb job

Excellent biography… The author has done a terrific job of unscrambling Knight’s muddled life

Jaw-droppingly revelatory biography. *****

Fascinating biography ... Hemming has done a superb job

Excellent biography… The author has done a terrific job of unscrambling Knight’s muddled life

Jaw-droppingly revelatory biography. *****

Fascinating biography ... Hemming has done a superb job

Excellent biography… The author has done a terrific job of unscrambling Knight’s muddled life

Jaw-droppingly revelatory biography. *****

Books by Henry Hemming

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