On a chill December night in 1942, a Nazi parachutist landed in a Cambridgeshire field. His mission: to sabotage the British war effort. His German masters called him Fritz or Fritzschen. The British police knew him as Eddie Chapman, ''a dangerous man and associate of thieves'', and believed he was still in prison. Within weeks Chapman was in the hands of MI5 and operating as Agent Zigzag, opening the most sensational chapter in the history of British espionage. Unpredictable, dashing and louche, Chapman proved to be a handful for both his German and British spymasters. In the estimation of the Nazis he was their super-spy, to whom they awarded the Iron Cross for ''heroics'' in Britain and occupied Europe; in the estimation of MI5, Zigzag had ''the courage to achieve the unbelievable''. He diverted the V1 flying bombs away from London, deceived the Germans with false information, and nonchalantly volunteered to assassinate Hitler, all with the same smooth confidence that made him a natural spy, and irrestible to women. But the restless Chapman courted contradiction as keenly as he embraced adventure. Inside the traitor lay a patriot; inside the villain, a man of conscience. The problem for Chapman, his spymasters and his many lovers was to know where one ended and the other began. Ben Macintyre weaves together diaries, letters, photographs and memories of the living, along with fascinating top-secret MI5 files never before made public to create an exhilarating account of the many lives of Eddie Chapman. As MI5 concluded, ''The story of Eddie Chapman is different. In fiction it would be rejected as improbable.''

Vorwort
From bestselling author Ben Macintyre, the sensational story of Eddie Chapman, one of Britain's most colourful wartime double agents.

Autorentext

Ben Macintyre is a columnist and Associate Editor on The Times. He has worked as the newspaper's correspondent in New York, Paris and Washington. He is the author of nine books including Agent Zigzag, shortlisted for the Costa Biography Award and the Galaxy British Book Award for Biography of the Year 2008*,* the number 1 bestseller Operation Mincemeat and, most recently, the Richard & Judy Book Club selection, Double Cross. He lives in London.

Klappentext

SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA BIOGRAPHY AWARD
**
'Engrossing as any thriller'** Daily Telegraph
'Superb. Meticulously researched, splendidly told, immensely entertaining' John le Carré
'This is the most amazing book, full of fascinating and hair-raising true life adventures . . . It would be impossible to recommend it too highly' Mail on Sunday
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One December night in 1942, a Nazi parachutist landed in a Cambridgeshire field. His mission: to sabotage the British war effort.

His name was Eddie Chapman, but he would shortly become MI5's Agent Zigzag. Dashing and suave, courageous and unpredictable, Chapman was by turns a traitor, a hero, a villain and a man of conscience. But, as his spymasters and many lovers often wondered, who was the real Eddie Chapman?

Ben Macintyre weaves together diaries, letters, photograph's, memories and top-secret MI5 files to create an exhilarating account of Britain's most sensational double agent.

Zusammenfassung
'Superb. Meticulously researched, splendidly told, immensely entertaining and often very moving.' JOHN LE CARRÉ