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Agent Sonya : lover, mother, soldier, spy / Ben Macintyre.

In the quiet Cotswolds village of Great Rollright in 1945, an elegant housewife emerged from her cottage to go on her usual bike ride. A devoted wife and mother-of-three, Mrs Burton seemed to epitomise rural British domesticity.However, rather than pedalling towards the shops with her ration book, she was racing through the Oxfordshire countryside to gather scientific intelligence from one of the country's most brilliant nuclear physicists. Secrets that she would transmit to Soviet intelligence headquarters via the radio transmitter she was hiding in her outdoor privy.Far from a British housewife, Mrs Burton - born Ursula Kuczynski, and codenamed 'Sonya' - was a German Jew, a dedicated communist, a colonel in Russia's Red Army, and a highly-trained spy. From planning an assassination attempt on Hitler in Switzerland, to spying on the Japanese in Manchuria, and helping the Soviet Union build the atom bomb, Sonya conducted some of the most dangerous espionage operations of the twentieth century. Her story has never been told - until now.Agent Sonya is the exhilarating account of one woman's life; a life that encompasses the rise and fall of communism itself, and altered the course of history.

Item Information
Barcode Shelf Location Collection Volume Ref. Branch Status Due Date Res.
C9009245770 327.1247 MACI
Adult nonfiction   Smithfield Branch . . Available .  
. Catalogue Record 1056190 ItemInfo Beginning of record . Catalogue Record 1056190 ItemInfo Top of page .
Catalogue Information
Field name Details
ISBN 9780241408513 (paperback)
Dewey 327.1247
Author Macintyre, Ben, 1963- author.
Title Agent Sonya : lover, mother, soldier, spy / Ben Macintyre.
Published London : Viking, 2020.
Physical description xxii, 377 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps, portraits, facsimiles ; 24 cm.
Note Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary In the quiet Cotswolds village of Great Rollright in 1945, an elegant housewife emerged from her cottage to go on her usual bike ride. A devoted wife and mother-of-three, Mrs Burton seemed to epitomise rural British domesticity.However, rather than pedalling towards the shops with her ration book, she was racing through the Oxfordshire countryside to gather scientific intelligence from one of the country's most brilliant nuclear physicists. Secrets that she would transmit to Soviet intelligence headquarters via the radio transmitter she was hiding in her outdoor privy.Far from a British housewife, Mrs Burton - born Ursula Kuczynski, and codenamed 'Sonya' - was a German Jew, a dedicated communist, a colonel in Russia's Red Army, and a highly-trained spy. From planning an assassination attempt on Hitler in Switzerland, to spying on the Japanese in Manchuria, and helping the Soviet Union build the atom bomb, Sonya conducted some of the most dangerous espionage operations of the twentieth century. Her story has never been told - until now.Agent Sonya is the exhilarating account of one woman's life; a life that encompasses the rise and fall of communism itself, and altered the course of history.
Subject Werner, Ruth, -- 1907-2000
Spies -- Soviet Union -- Biography
Espionage, Soviet -- Great Britain -- History -- 20th century
Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 20th century
Catalogue Information 1056190 Beginning of record . Catalogue Information 1056190 Top of page .