The one-man spy factory who changed history

With two new biographies of Kim Philby out, an espionage drama by Sir David Hare on BBC2, and the recent revelation that the aristocrat superspy John Bingham was the model for George Smiley, there is little doubt that Britain is currently going through one of its fitful bouts of spy fever, and this book can only add to the excitement.

Philby has a walk-on role in Jason Webster’s gripping and stylish new account of the extraordinary career of Juan Pujol, aka Agent Garbo — and a multiplicity of other monikers — arguably the second world war’s most successful double agent apart from Philby himself.

Pujol first crossed British Intelligence radar when the clever boys and girls at Bletchley Park codebreaking centre noticed  signals from a new German agent, code-named ‘Arabel’, who claimed to be operating inside Britain. Arabel’s reports, however — including the important information that Glasgow shipworkers relaxed of an evening over fine wines — made clear that his information came from a fertile imagination.