The CIA Book Club The Best-Kept Secret of the Cold War

A Book of the Year in the Daily Telegraph and Economist

'Vibrant, beautifully researched and exciting... a real pleasure to read - a finely written page-turner full of well-researched stories of smuggling, intrigue and survival'

Guardian

'Charlie English tells the tale of a 1980s secret operation in communist-controlled Poland... . A vivid and moving story. English is terrific at evoking the atmosphere of Poland in the 1970s and 1980s-not just the regime's narrowed horizons and suffocating repression, but the excitement of the Solidarity trade union movement and the idealism of the young dissidents'

The Times, Dominic Sandbrook

'This covert CIA programme to undermine censorship in the Soviet bloc is the subject of Charlie English's impressively detailed account... English does a first-rate job in piecing together this patchily known story in efficient, pacy prose'

Spectator

'Entertaining and vivid... This is a gripping account of an intriguing and little-known Cold War moment'

Observer

'Gripping...an extraordinarily detailed account of how the [CIA] Book Club set about capturing hearts and minds'

Daily Mail

'Spring-loaded with tradecraft, English's account feels like it's torn from the pages of Ian Fleming ... An indelible reminder ... that words matter, and that perhaps the most patriotic thing one can do is read'

Washington Post

'Reads like a thriller'

The Sun

'A story as fascinating as it is undersung ... a riveting account centered on Poland in the turbulent 1980s, when the 'war of ideas' could exact real casualties. This was spycraft as soulcraft... . The publication of The CIA Book Club feels perfectly, painfully timely... . A reminder of what's lost when a government no longer believes in the power of its own ideals'

New York Times Book Review

'A fascinating account of a world-changing covert operation and a first-rate contribution to the history of the CIA'

Tim Weiner, author of Legacy of Ashes