This was the story of the scandal that rocked Britain during my teenage years. An interesting story but doesn't give anything new and is very long. The implications of the five men have affected Britains' standing in the world ever since.

Not the most famous of the Cambridge Spies, but McLean is certainly the most difficult to pin down! His ideology, relationships, habits and addictions are examined to great effect! This man of smoke and shadows is drawn out and by the end you feel a bit closer to understanding why a man of his class and family who do what he did!

Tbh I don’t think even Donald McLean knew who he was- but this is an excellent addition to the Cambridge Spies scandal! I don’t agree with the idea of their being a ‘Cambridge Five’, that’s simply not substantiated by evidence! But otherwise a well research and put together account of an important life!

Who. could want more? This is thoroughly researched, gives us a great insight from new angle into that crowd of spies, and their relationships among each other .. in fact the conviction in evidence in Maclean for what he did elevates the entire discuss business. The other terrific thing here too is its readability. I had hard time putting it down .. totally recommendable

This is an interesting and informative read. It was intriguing to learn more about Donald Maclean. His life is really well documented in this book in a format that is is easy to read.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

Detailed and readable account.

There a lot of books on Philby & Burgess, but not many on Maclean.

This book by Roland Philipps provides a readable but detailed account of life and career of Maclean using recently released files.

A good addition to my "Cambridge Five" shelf

** 3.5 Stars **

If you’re wanting an in-depth look at what made real-life spy Donald Maclean tick, then A Spy Named Orphan will not disappoint. Additionally, it gives great insight into other infamous spies of the 1940’s/50’s to such an extent that it’s akin to being a fly on the wall.

As part of the ‘Cambridge Five’ (A ring of spies in the UK who passed information to the Soviet Union) Maclean was perhaps the most complex of these young radicals who became almost obsessed with the idea of communism, and as such he was a perfect recruit for the Soviets.

When Donald passed his exams to become a Foreign Office Diplomat, it proved to be a gift for the Soviets, as he was able to send them an incredible amount of secret information, much more so than any other ’mole’, and to the extent that the Soviets found it difficult to keep up with all the information he was providing.

He was acknowledged by his colleagues in the Foreign Office as being an extremely hard working and pleasant man, however the strain of maintaining the face of innocence whilst working directly with the Soviets contributed to a breakdown and led to some spectacular drinking sessions along with bouts of violence and outrageous behaviour in his personal life.

The author has done a remarkable job of bringing Maclean back to life and I salute the amount of research that must have gone into producing this comprehensive study. The story goes right back to Maclean’s childhood, back even to his parents upbringing, so you get a real sense of what made him who he was. A strict home life together with an enforced ‘honour system’ at Gresham School, which involved adhering to the highest moral standards possible, probably contributed to Maclean’s tendency to both rebel against and deceive any kind of authority in later years. It wasn’t until he met his future wife Melinda that he seemed to find himself, and although his later alcoholic binges led to a troubled marriage, they appeared to love each other deeply. Melinda continued to support him even after he had defected behind the Iron Curtain, leaving both her and his children behind, with Melinda not knowing if she’d ever see him again.

I wasn’t sure initially whether this book would be ‘my thing’ but I quickly discovered that the author had created a fascinating and compelling read, making use of previously classified material, and allowing us to get right inside the head of this most infamous double agent. If I have any complaints at all, it would be that it was overly drawn out in parts, but I do appreciate the amount of work that went into it, so it is a minor niggle. If you love John Le Carré then you’ll love this true story for sure!

* I was invited to read A Spy Named Orphan by the publisher and have given an honest unbiased review in exchange*

Written with access to personal letters and memories of family and friends as well as official documents the biography provides a richly detailed intimate account of the life and times of Donald Mclean from his early upbringing until his death in Moscow. Conditioned by his Presbyterian upbringing and seeing the effect of the 20’s depression on the working classes caused him to conclude that communism was the answer to the economic problems of the age and not Fascism which was against humanity. He was a brilliant scholar and as a member of the establishment gained entry to the Foreign Office. He was both a brilliant Diplomat rising up through the ranks to be within reach of the highest position in the service as well as an ace spy for the Soviets. In his position he was able pass copies of all government papers to his spy masters. Thereby Stalin was able to know all the thoughts and plans of the UK and US governments throughout the world war and into the peace and was able to make his plans accordingly. His dual role placed a heavy strain on him until towards the end it had to be alleviated by heavy bouts of drinking. He escaped detection for some twenty years and was extricated to Russian from under the noses of MI5 who were about to arrest him. In Russia he was later joined by his children and his wife who had loyally stood by him and shared his secrets. He ended his days there as an academic before his remains were return to be interned in the family grave. A most enlightening and interesting account of his life.

This is not a scholarly book despite being extensively researched in terms of the archive material on Maclean but the narrative feels a bit bogged down and plodding for a 'popular' one. The story itself is an amazing one, the sheer audacity of Maclean (and Burgess, Blunt and Philby), but somehow the telling of it lacks excitement and tension even towards the end when they're about to be uncovered.

Maclean as a personality remains elusive: Philipps describes him as both reserved and a near-alcoholic, panicked and cool, shy and friendly and it's hard to get a sense of the real man, his thoughts and feelings. I especially wanted to know more about how he felt when Stalin made his pact with Hitler in the run-up to WW2.

Maclean was a committed communist for ideological reasons, and Philipps makes his reasoning clear given both his Liberal family background and the historical contexts of the General Strike (1926) as an uprising against class inequalities, the Wall Street Crash and Depression (1929) as a failure of capitalism, and the rise of fascism (1930s) not just in Germany but also in Italy and Spain. How, then, did Maclean square all this with Stalin changing sides, as it were? The political reasoning of buying time for Russia to re-arm is clear but I wanted some deeper insights into how this move impacted Maclean and his fellow KGB spies.

It's striking to what extent MI5/MI6 were gentlemen's clubs, all public school and Oxbridge, so that there were hardly any background checks or vetting of staff: as long someone was 'one of us' all was supposedly ok. Maclean's ability to take top secret files from the office every night was less a matter of subterfuge and smuggling, more just a case of putting them into his briefcase and walking out - nothing was checked, everyone was trusted.

So this was a far less dramatic story than I expected, and even Maclean's defection feels a bit desultory. The facts are here along with lots of background information on Soviet-UK-US relations, on intelligence/counter-intelligence officers, on the huge number of KGB spies infiltrated within UK and US bureaucracies. Having come to this via le Carré and the TV series The Americans, I was interested to see how far fiction is based on prosaic fact: 3.5 stars.

This book ticks all the boxes you would want from a biography. It analyses a complex figure very astutely and shows how his actions embarrassed the stiff backed society he was part of. It offers new material which brings the whole Maclean affair to life. Importantly too,the author remains objective throughout. The book is also exceedingly well written and keeps the reader enthralled even though the ending is no surprise. Actually,that's not true! Few readers probably realise what happened to Maclean I nice he fled to Russia. That in itself says much about the man and his demons.