Book Review: "Agent Sonya" By Ben Macintyre

Tension Building! Suspenseful! Mind Blowing!

The life and times of a legendary spy agent has certainly changed over the years with Sonya aka Ursula leading the way.

Ursula Burton wasn't your typical housewife with 3 kids; dully married; nor an easily accessible woman. She was quite extraordinary with an intellect, wise beyond her years, with a powerful view towards courage lacking any and all constraint. She was a serial cheater, adulterer, a mother determined to make a name for herself, and quite frankly put her own brother to shame. She literally single handedly influenced the course of the Cold War and created a new buzz of excitement for the nuclear superpowers around the globe.

In fact as noted,"They didn’t know that she was a high-ranking Soviet intelligence officer. They didn’t know that her husband was also a spy, or that she was running powerful agents across Europe. Behind the facade of her picturesque life, Burton was a dedicated Communist, a Soviet colonel, and a veteran agent, gathering the scientific secrets that would enable the Soviet Union to build the bomb."

Who knew she was sneaking around putting transmitters in garden walls and yet at one point I recall reading how the plains flew right about her house yet still couldn't figure it out.

Fascinating to read her life while sending the kids to her nanny , leaving her own spy husband behind to fend for self in concentration camps, and later to learn he ended up working for the very people who nearly killed him.

The author further illustrates just how powerful of a spy she became, "Over the course of her career, she was hunted by the Chinese, the Japanese, the Nazis, MI5, MI6, and the FBI—and she evaded them all. Her story reflects the great ideological clash of the twentieth century—between Communism, Fascism, and Western democracy—and casts new light on the spy battles and shifting allegiances of our own times."

The ending was just mind blowing. To have numerous children raised quite frankly by a nanny who seemed to not carry any ill will against her for being a spy was spectacular. The end result of were those individuals are now and during the time of the encounter of this writing was beyond words.

I can't imagine even being afforded this opportunity to jot notes for a book on one of the most spectacular spies of our time.

A true diamond read for all those interested in such historical aspects during a Wartime era.