The most recommended books on Kim Philby

Who picked these books? Meet our 17 experts.

17 authors created a book list connected to Kim Philby, and here are their favorite Kim Philby books.
When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Book cover of A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal

Merle Nygate Author Of The Righteous Spy

From my list on spy books that spies read and sometimes wrote themselves.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve written and script edited in a lot of different genres, from factual drama to sitcom, children’s TV to fantasy. I’ve always loved spy stories, and I’ve always wanted to write one. Recently, at the University of East Anglia I studied for an MA in Crime Fiction, and that’s where I finally got the chance to study espionage and write a spy novel myself. I hope you enjoy my selection of books if you haven’t already read them. Or even if you have. They’re all so good that I feel like re-reading them right now. 

Merle's book list on spy books that spies read and sometimes wrote themselves

Merle Nygate Why did Merle love this book?

This is a non-fiction book but it reads like a novel and explores one of the great mysteries of the spy world: how on earth did Kim Philby manage to betray not only his country but also his friends over so many years? 

A former spy I had the privilege of interviewing described Philby as a shit, so maybe there’s the answer. I think this is a terrific read, and although Macintyre probably isn’t a spy, like Deighton, he knows them. 

By Ben Macintyre,

Why should I read it?

12 authors picked A Spy Among Friends as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Kim Philby was the most notorious British defector and Soviet mole in history. Agent, double agent, traitor and enigma, he betrayed every secret of Allied operations to the Russians in the early years of the Cold War.

Philby's two closest friends in the intelligence world, Nicholas Elliott of MI6 and James Jesus Angleton, the CIA intelligence chief, thought they knew Philby better than anyone, and then discovered they had not known him at all. This is a story of intimate duplicity; of loyalty, trust and treachery, class and conscience; of an ideological battle waged by men with cut-glass accents and…


Book cover of Kim Philby: A story of friendship and betrayal

Andrew Lownie Author Of Stalin's Englishman: Guy Burgess, the Cold War, and the Cambridge Spy Ring

From my list on Guy Burgess (Cambridge Spy Ring).

Why am I passionate about this?

Andrew Lownie is a former journalist for The London Times, the British representative for the Washington-based National Intelligence Centre, and he helped set up the Spy Museum in Washington. His books include biographies of the writer John Buchan, the spy Guy Burgess (which won the St Ermin’s Hotel Intelligence Book Prize), Dickie & Edwina Mountbatten (a top ten Sunday Times bestseller) and a forthcoming book on the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.

Andrew's book list on Guy Burgess (Cambridge Spy Ring)

Andrew Lownie Why did Andrew love this book?

Kim Philby’s most personal betrayal was not of Nicholas Elliott, as suggested in Ben McIntyre’s A Spy Among Friends , but his school friend and another MI6 colleague Tim Milne , the nephew of Winnie the Pooh author AA Milne, whom he falsely accused of being a spy in order to deflect attention from himself. Milne’s memoirs were finally permitted to be published four years after his death and provide a fascinating and fresh glimpse into both Philby and Burgess especially Milne’s teenage European travels with Philby and his August 1948 visit to Philby in Turkey where he remembered fellow guest Burgess ‘lolling in a window seat, dirty, unshaven, wearing nothing but an inadequately fastened dressing-gown”, singing on jeep rides into the countryside and  diving into the Bosphorus from a second floor balcony.

By Tim Milne,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Kim Philby as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Foreword by Phillip Knightley Kim Philby, the so-called Third Man in the Cambridge spy ring, was the Cold War's most infamous traitor. A Soviet spy at the heart of British intelligence, at one point heading up the section tasked with rooting out Russian spies within MI6, he betrayed hundreds of British and US agents to the Russians and compromised numerous operations inside the Soviet Union. Ian Innes 'Tim' Milne was Phiby's closest and oldest friend. They studied at Westminster School together and when Philby joined MI6 he immediately recruited Milne as his deputy. Philby's treachery was a huge blow to…


Book cover of Declare: A Novel

Tom Doyle Author Of Olympian Games: Agent of Exiles 2

From my list on alternate/secret histories that blew my mind.

Why am I passionate about this?

I love history, and it infuses most of my fiction. Since I first picked up a book, I’ve never stopped learning about the past. Now, I listen to college courses and podcasts and read books both popular and academic. Sometimes this is for my writing or personal travel, but those things are often just excuses for the fun of immersion in a subject. I particularly enjoy reading and writing alternate/secret history because it merges creative imagination with factual scholarship. But I’m picky about the use of history in all media—factual sloppiness bumps me out of a story as quickly as bad physics drives a scientist from an SF movie. 

Tom's book list on alternate/secret histories that blew my mind

Tom Doyle Why did Tom love this book?

Tim Powers is best known for his secret histories. Unlike alternate history, a secret history doesn’t change the publicly known facts of the past; instead, it tells a story hidden beneath those facts that may change their meaning.

Powers takes a strict approach to secret history that I admire and try to follow when I can: all the known historical details (who was where and when and what they were doing) must remain the same. His marvelous novel Declare applies this rule to the Kim Philby spy case. Powerful beings that have been dwelling among us provide the hidden motivations for espionage and treason from WWII into the Cold War.

Declare is fun both for its spycraft and occult details. 

By Tim Powers,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Declare as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

As a young double agent infiltrating the Soviet spy network in Nazi-occupied Paris, Andrew Hale finds himself caught up in a secret, even more ruthless war. Two decades later, in 1963, he will be forced to confront again the nightmarethat has haunted his adult life: a lethal unfinished operation code-named Declare. From the corridors of Whitehall to the Arabian desert, from post-war Berlin to the streets of Cold War Moscow, Hale's desperate quest draws him into international politics and gritty espionage tradecraft -- and inexorably drives Hale, the fiery and beautiful Communist agent Elena Teresa Ceniza-Bendiga, and Kim Philby, mysterious…


Book cover of The Human Factor

Merle Nygate Author Of The Righteous Spy

From my list on spy books that spies read and sometimes wrote themselves.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve written and script edited in a lot of different genres, from factual drama to sitcom, children’s TV to fantasy. I’ve always loved spy stories, and I’ve always wanted to write one. Recently, at the University of East Anglia I studied for an MA in Crime Fiction, and that’s where I finally got the chance to study espionage and write a spy novel myself. I hope you enjoy my selection of books if you haven’t already read them. Or even if you have. They’re all so good that I feel like re-reading them right now. 

Merle's book list on spy books that spies read and sometimes wrote themselves

Merle Nygate Why did Merle love this book?

Before I started writing my first spy novel, I came across a hardback second-hand copy of The Human Factor in an antique store. On the inside flap, Greene wrote about wanting to write about spies with pensions. The phrase stuck with me.

Greene’s spy lives in a suburban house and commutes to work like any of his neighbours but he is a traitor with his own dark secrets. What an intriguing idea. Greene himself was a spy during WW2 and a friend of one of the greatest traitors in British history – Kim Philby.

By Graham Greene,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Human Factor as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'Graham Greene's beautiful and disturbing novel is filled with tenderness, humour, excitement and doubt' The Times

A leak is traced to a small sub-section of the secret service, sparking off the inevitable security checks, tensions and suspicions. The sort of atmosphere, perhaps, where mistakes could be made? For Maurice Castle, it is the end of the line anyway, and time for him to retire to live peacefully with his wife and child. But no-one escapes so easily from the lonely, isolated, neurotic world of the SIS.

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY COLM TOIBIN


Book cover of A Spy Among Friends: Philby and the Great Betrayal

John Corcelli

From John's 3 favorite reads in 2023.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Writer Reader Listener Musician Cyclist

John's 3 favorite reads in 2023

John Corcelli Why did John love this book?

I loved this book for its engaging story. Spies, particularly the real ones, intrigue me.

Macintyre shapes the story of Kim Philby as a mystery wrapped inside an enigma. His style flows like a river in summertime, a trip through history with a human touch and a fascination for the people of the Cold War.

The book was made into a six-part TV series featuring Damian Lewis and Guy Pearce. I watched it, and then I read the book. I couldn’t get enough of MI6, the CIA, and the KGB who play games of the worst kind, through lies.

By Ben Macintyre,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked A Spy Among Friends as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A SUNDAY TIMES No. 1 BESTSELLER WITH AN AFTERWORD BY JOHN LE CARRE 'Riveting, astounding ... An unputdownable postwar thriller' Observer 'Irresistibly readable' Sunday Times 'Worthy of John le Carre at his best' Guardian 'Hugely engrossing ... Both authoritative and enthralling' William Boyd ________________ Kim Philby was the most notorious British defector and Soviet mole in history. Agent, double agent, charmer and traitor, he betrayed every secret of Allied operations to the Russians in the early years of the Cold War. In the aftermath of the Second World War, Philby, Nicholas Elliott and James Jesus Angleton were rising stars in…


Book cover of A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal
Book cover of Kim Philby: A story of friendship and betrayal
Book cover of Declare: A Novel

Share your top 3 reads of 2024!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,488

readers submitted
so far, will you?