Ben Macintyre

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

Ben MacIntyre
BornBenedict Richard Pierce MacIntyre
25 December 1963 (1963-12-25) (age 57)
Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, UK
OccupationColumnist, author
NationalityBritish

Early life

Ben Macintyre's 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, graduating with a degree in history in 1985.[2]

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.[3] 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.[4][5]

Macintyre's 2020 book Agent Sonya is a biography of Soviet agent Ursula Kuczynski. BBC Radio 4 featured it as a Book of the Week.

Personal life

He lives with his wife and three children in north London.[6]

Documentaries

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

Awards and honours

Bibliography
This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

Books
  • Forgotten Fatherland: The Search for Elisabeth Nietzsche. New York 1992. ISBN 978-0-374-15759-3[13]
  • 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. (American edition: 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
  • Agent Sonya: Lover, Mother, Soldier, Spy; Viking, 2020, 384pp; ISBN 978-0241408506

Critical studies and reviews of Macintyre's work

See also

References
  1. Macintyre, Ben (12 October 1997). "Gaslight". The New York Times.
  2. 'Cambridge University Tripos Results', The Guardian, 5 July 1985.
  3. Macintyre, Ben; Josiah the Great: The True Story of the Man who Would be King; HarperCollins; 2004, 350pp; ISBN 9780007151066
  4. 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
  5. Imperial War Museum catalogue number LBY 08 / 802
  6. https://www.bloomsbury.com/author/ben-macintyre
  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. "BBC Two - SAS: Rogue Warriors". BBC. Retrieved 16 June 2020.
  12. "The Baillie Gifford Prize 2018 announces shortlist". Baillie Gifford Prize. 2 October 2018. Retrieved 3 October 2018.
  13. See Nueva Germania and Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche.
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