Ben Macintyre.
BEN MACINTYRE: URSULA KUCZYNSKI BIOGRAPHY
AGENT SONYA: LOVER, MOTHER, SOLDIER, SPY (2020)
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Ursula Kuczynski (born 1907) was a German communist who had a long career as a spy working for the Soviet Union. Born in Berlin, she joined the Young Communists at the age of seventeen, and remained a commited communist all her life. After a course in librarianship, she in 1930 moved with her architect husaband to Shanghai, where they lived for five years. She was there recruited as a spy for the Soviet Union, and in 1931 spent seven months in Russia undertaking espionage training. After three months in Poland, and a spell in Switzerland she moved in 1941 to England, settling in north Oxfordshire. This was conveniently close to the Harwell atomic research centre and to Blenheim Palace, to which much of the British intelligence service had been evacuated. She handled many Soviet agents, the most notable being the atomic scientist Klaus Fuchs. When Fuchs was arrested in 1950, Ursula fled to Berlin, fearing that he would betray her. She lived the rest of her life in East Germany, and died there in 2000 at the age of 93.
The Sunday Times wrote of the book: 'Macintyre's page-turner is a dazzling portrait of a flawed yet driven individual who risked everything (including her children) for the cause'. The Times described it as ‘His best book yet’.
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Ben Macintyre (born 1963) is a journalist and author with a speciality in twentieth century espionage. He has published several biographies, and has worked as a journalist and columnist for the Times in London, New York, Paris and Washington. Macintyre attended St.John’s College, Cambridge, where he obtained his degree in history.
