Ace of Spies

Here is a unique account of the life and motives of the most feared spy in history - the man who, with the father of the author, took part in one of the most amazing espionage operations of all time, the attempt to overthrow the Russian revolution. From an early age Reilly (an illegitimate Jew named Rosenblum, born in Odessa) showed genius in his chosen profession. His exploits significantly affected the course of the twentieth century, whether in the Persian oilfields in 1905 or while serving on the German general staff in 1917. Of astonishing sexual prowess (he may have poisoned his first wife’s husband and thereafter left a trail of mistresses of all ages and nationalities across the world), he became a legend in his lifetime when from his rooms in the Albany, where he entertained the Chiefs of the Secret Service and many highranking Foreign Office officials, he led a strange and dangerous life, labelled by the Russians as Churchill’s chief spy, until in 1925 he suddenly disappeared. Why he did, after as bizarre a confrontation with his hated enemies the O.G.P.U. as ever Ian Fleming could have devised - all this is saved for the closing chapters of Mr. Bruce Lockhart’s amazing book.