Ben Macintyre

Ben Macintyre
Born Benedict Richard Pierce Macintyre
25 December 1963 (1963-12-25) (age 54)
Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, UK
Occupation Columnist, author
Nationality British

Benedict Richard Pierce Macintyre (born 25 December 1963) is a British author, historian, reviewer[1] and columnist writing for The Times newspaper. His columns range from current affairs to historical controversies.

Early life

His father was Angus MacIntyre, the son of Major Francis MacIntyre, of the 14th/20th King's Hussars. His paternal grandmother was related to the ancestral line of Viscount Netterville. He has an elder sister, born 1962, and a younger brother, born 1971. On his mother's side he is related to the Harvey baronets and Berkeley Paget. He was educated at Abingdon School and St. John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated with a degree in history in 1985.[2]

Personal life

Macintyre was married to Kate Muir. He has three children[3] and lives in North London.

Writing

Macintyre is the author of a book on the gentleman criminal Adam Worth, The Napoleon of Crime: The Life and Times of Adam Worth, Master Thief.

He also wrote The Man Who Would Be King: The First American in Afghanistan (about Josiah Harlan). This was also published as Josiah the Great: The True Story of the Man who Would be King.[4] Harlan is one of the candidates presumed to be the basis for Rudyard Kipling's short story The Man Who Would Be King.

His book on Eddie Chapman, a double agent of Germany and Britain during the Second World War, was titled Agent Zigzag: The True Wartime Story of Eddie Chapman: Lover, Betrayer, Hero, Spy.

In 2008, Macintyre wrote an illustrated account of Ian Fleming, creator of the fictional spy James Bond, to accompany the For Your Eyes Only, Ian Fleming and James Bond exhibition at London's Imperial War Museum, which was part of the Fleming Centenary celebrations.[5][6]

Documentaries

Four of his books have recently been made into documentaries for the BBC:

Nominations

Two books were nominated for an "Edgar" in the category "Best Fact Crime":

  • 1998: The Napoleon of Crime: The Life and Times of Adam Worth, Master Thief
  • 2013: Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies

Costa Book Awards, in the category "Biography":

  • 2007: Agent Zigzag

Galaxy British Book Awards, in the category "Biography":

  • 2008: Agent Zigzag

Bibliography

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Books

  • Macintyre, Ben (1992). Forgotten Fatherland : the search for Elisabeth Nietzsche. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. [11]
  • The Napoleon of Crime: The Life and Times of Adam Worth, Master Thief. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1997. ISBN 978-0-374-21899-7.
  • A Foreign Field. HarperCollins, 2001. ISBN 978-0-00-257122-7.
    • In the USA The Englishman's Daughter: A True Story of Love and Betrayal in World War One. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002. ISBN 978-0-374-12985-9.
  • The Man Who Would Be King: The First American in Afghanistan. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2004. ISBN 978-0-374-20178-4.
  • Agent Zigzag: The True Wartime Story of Eddie Chapman: Lover, Betrayer, Hero, Spy. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2007. ISBN 978-0-7475-8794-1.
  • For Your Eyes Only: Ian Fleming and James Bond. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2008. .
  • The Last Word: Tales from the Tip of the Mother Tongue. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2009. ISBN 978-1-4088-0333-2.
  • Operation Mincemeat: The True Spy Story that Changed the Course of World War II. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2010. ISBN 978-0-7475-9868-8.
  • Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2012. ISBN 978-1-4088-1990-6.
  • A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2014. ISBN 978-1408851722.
  • Rogue Heroes: The History of the SAS, Britain's Secret Special Forces Unit That Sabotaged the Nazis and Changed the Nature of War; McClelland & Stewart; 2017; 400pp; ISBN 978-0771060328
  • The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War; Viking, 2018, 352pp; ISBN 978-0241186657

Critical studies and reviews of Macintyre's work

  • Gladwell, Malcolm (July 28, 2014). "A Critic at Large: Trust No One". The New Yorker. 90 (21): 70–75. Retrieved 30 September 2014. Includes review of A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal.
  • Fitzpatrick, Sheila (Sep 2014). "'One of us' : the spy who relished deception". Australian Book Review. 364: 27–28. Review of A spy among friends.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Macintyre, Ben (October 12, 1997). "Gaslight". The New York Times.
  2. ↑ 'Cambridge University Tripos Results', Guardian, 5 July 1985.
  3. ↑ https://www.bloomsbury.com/author/ben-macintyre
  4. ↑ Macintyre, Ben; Josiah the Great: The True Story of the Man who Would be King; HarperCollins; 2004, 350pp; ISBN 9780007151066
  5. ↑ Macintyre, Ben, Imperial War Museum;For Your Eyes Only, Ian Fleming and James Bond; Bloomsbury Publishing; London; 2008; 224pp; ISBN 978-1-5969-1544-2
  6. ↑ Imperial War Museum catalogue number LBY 08 / 802
  7. ↑ Walker George Films: Operation Mincemeat
  8. ↑ Walker George Films: DOUBLE AGENT: The Eddie Chapman Story
  9. ↑ Walker George Films: Double Cross - The True Story of the D Day Spies
  10. ↑ BBC TWO "Kim Philby - His Most Intimate Betrayal
  11. ↑ See Nueva Germania and Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche.
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