A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal

Operation Mincemeat

The True Spy Story that Changed the Course of World War II

One overcast April morning in 1943, a fisherman notices a corpse floating in the sea off the coast of Spain. When the body is brought ashore, he is identified as a British soldier, Major William Martin of the Royal Marines. A leather attaché case, secured to his belt, reveals an intelligence goldmine: top-secret documents Allied invasion plans.

But Major William Martin never existed. The body is that of a dead Welsh tramp and every single document is fake. Operation Mincemeat is the incredible true story of the most extraordinary deception ever planned by Churchill’s spies – an outrageous lie that travelled from a Whitehall basement, all the way to Hitler’s desk.

‘With its fantastic plot and its cast of eccentric characters, the book reads like the most improbable of spy stories. It is a tribute to Macintyre’s skill that we never for a moment forget that it is actually all true’

Daily Telegraph

‘Macintyre has a journalist’s nose for a great story, and a novelist’s skill in its narration ... spellbinding’

Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday

‘Compelling’

William Boyd, The Times