BOOK REVIEW: A SPY'S LONDON - by Roy Berkeley

Review by Eleanor Cleek

In "this remarkable book" (as intelligence historian Nigel West describes it in his forward), the reader will be struck by the vibrancy of history made real. Author Roy Berkeley has gone behind the facades of ordinary buildings in the city which West calls "the espionage capital of the world", to remind us that the history of intelligence has often been made in such mundane places.

With his evocative photographs and compelling observations, Berkeley ensures that we will never see the streets of London -- or these particular actors on the stage of history -- in quite the same way again. The 136 sites are organized into 21 manageable walks keyed to underground stations. Among the sites: the modest hotel suite where an eager Red Army colonel poured out his secrets to a team of British and American intelligence officers; the royal residence where one of the most slippery Soviet moles was at home for years, and the London home were an MP plotting to appease Hitler was arrested on his front steps in 1940. The author is an attentive and long-time observer of the clandestine world.

His up-to-the-minute book, scrupulously researched and engagingly written, is for the general reader as well as the amateur or professional intelligence buff, and for the armchair traveler as well as the sensibly shod tourist. The book has 136 photos, 21 easy-to-follow maps, a chatty glossary, and an extensive index. It is available suitably inscribed and/or autographed from the author, Roy Berkeley, in the US from Roy Berkeley, Box 311, Shaftsbury, VT 05262 at $18.98 including postage and handling. ISBN 0-85052-113-0. You can find it in England from publisher Lee Cooper at 9.95 pounds net.