Spybrary Spy Podcast

Spybrary field agent Erich Wagner slipped us this brush pass review of the nonfiction spy book The Spy Who Changed History by Svetlana Lokhova Erich tells us that the book will especially appeal to those of us with an interest in pre cold war Soviet deep cover espionage. More about the book:   On the trail of Soviet infiltrator Stanislav Shumovsky, codenamed Agent BLÉRIOT, Svetlana Lokhova takes the reader on a thrilling journey through Stalin’s most audacious intelligence operation. On a sunny September day in 1931, Soviet spy Stanislav Shumovsky walked down the gangplank of the SS Europa and into New York, concealed in a group of 65 Soviet students. Joseph Stalin had sent him to acquire American secrets to help close the USSR’s yawning technology gap, and the road to victory began in the classrooms and laboratories of MIT. Using information gleaned from this mission, the USSR first transformed itself into a military powerhouse able to defeat Nazi Germany. Then in 1947, American innovation exfiltrated by Shumovsky made it possible to build and unveil the most advanced strategic bomber in the world. Later , other MIT-trained Soviet spies would go on to acquire the secrets of the Manhattan Project. In this thrilling history, Svetlana Lokhova takes the reader on a journey through Stalin’s most audacious intelligence operation, piecing together every aspect of Shumovsky’s life and character using information derived from American and Russian archives.

Shane shares a quick announcement on upcoming episodes and explains why there has been a lull in episodes of late.

James Bond fan and Spybrary's Head of Station SA, Matt Raubenheimer gives us his spoiler-free thoughts on the latest James Bond 007 novel With A Mind To A Kill written by Anthony Horowitz. It is M's funeral. One man is missing from the graveside: the traitor who pulled the trigger and who is now in custody, accused of M's murder - James Bond. Behind the Iron Curtain, a group of former Smersh agents want to use the British spy in an operation that will change the balance of world power. Bond is smuggled into the lion's den - but whose orders is he following, and will he obey them when the moment of truth arrives? In a mission where treachery is all around and one false move means death, Bond must grapple with the darkest questions about himself. But not even he knows what has happened to the man he used to be.   Follow Matt on Twitter for more 007 tweets.

Shane Whaley delivers a brush pass review on Agent in Berlin by Alex Gerlis To live among wolves, first, you must become one... An unmissable new spy thriller from best-selling master of the genre, Alex Gerlis. War is coming to Europe. British spymaster Barnaby Allen begins recruiting a network of agents in Germany. With diplomatic relations quickly unravelling, this pack of spies soon comes into their own: the horse-loving German at home in Berlin's underground; the young American sports journalist; the mysterious Luftwaffe officer; the Japanese diplomat and the most unlikely one of all... the SS officer's wife. Despite constant danger and the ever-present threats of discovery and betrayal, Allen's network unearths top-secret plans for a new German fighter plane - and a truly devastating intelligence prize... an audacious Japanese plan to attack the United States. But can they prove it? The race is on.

This week, Spywrite's Jeff Quest welcomes Otto Penzler to the show. Otto shares stories from his many years of collecting books and meeting spy fiction authors. You’ll hear stories about Eric Ambler, Charles McCarry, John le Carré and many more. ,  Plus, hear about his meeting with Len Deighton, how Ross Thomas nearly lost out on a million dollars, and a shocking revelation about a piece by Quiller writer Adam Hall.

The year is 1957 and our guests share their thoughts on the latest James Bond novel From Russia With Love written by Ian Fleming.

On April 8th, Amazon releases the movie adaptation of Olen Steinhauer's All the Old Knives. In today's episode, two of our most knowledgable spy movie experts and Spybrary agents Matthew Bradford and Jack Lescamela chat with author and screenwriter Olen Steinhauer and the director of All The Old Knives, Janus Metz. Hello, and welcome to episode 181 of the Spybrary podcast. Today, I'm delighted to serve you an absolute treat a couple of weeks ago, we received an email from the PR folks over at Amazon Prime asking us if we had any interest in a conversation with author and screenwriter, Oen Steinhauer. Many of, you will know Olen from his previous works, the Tourist series of books or maybe you know him from the hit spy tv series Berlin Station? There's a new movie about to hit Amazon prime, which is an adaptation of Olen Steinhauer's book, All the Old Knives. I know that there are many of you in the Spybrary community who are big fans of that book and are excited for the movie. Not only did the PR team offer us an interview with Olen Steinhauer, but also with the All the Old Knives Director Janus Metz. I thought to myself, I've got to get the big boys on this. I've got to call the real experienced agents that really know their spy movies and TV. So I called upon Our Men in Hollywood. Many of you know them from our Spybrary community. That's Matthew Bradford and Jack Lescamela. And I called him and said, I've got a job for you. So today we bring you that conversation that Our Menn in Hollywood had with Olen Steinhauer and Janus Metz. It's a wide-ranging conversation. They touch on a ton of different topics, Jack and Matthew really knock it out of the park for us here. It's a fascinating conversation that I just know you're gonna enjoy. Just a couple of words of warning, Janus used a couple of F words. So if you're in the car with the kids, or maybe your husband, doesn't like bad language, whatever it may be. He throws me in quite quickly. I couldn't quite edit them out and I didn't want to bleep them, because I just felt that would detract from the conversation. So just a heads up on that. After the conversation, do stick around for, a bit of post-show. Matthew and Jack have a conversation about their interview about All the Old Knives and more with Olen Steinhauer and Janus Metz

Spybrary joins forces with the Barbican Station podcast to discuss Apple TV's Slow Horses series starring Gary Oldman which airs today. The first half of this episode is spoiler-free. Today is the day many of us have been waiting for, the Apple TV's Slow Horses series starring Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb is now airing. Through one of our agents I was able to get an early screening of Slow Horses and today you will listen to three of us running the rule over episodes 1 and 2.  If you have not watched it Slow Horses yet don’t worry, the first half of the show includes no spoilers and we do tell you when we get into Spoilertown. Our good friend and Spybrary contributor Jeff Quest produces his own podcast dedicated to Mick Herron's work called Barbican Station, So rather than both of us evaluate the Apple TV's Slow Horses adaptation separately, we decided to release this episode on both of our podcasts. For discussion on episodes 3-6 of Slow Horses do subscribe to Jeff’s podcast at slough.house

Today, we bring you a spy author interview. Spybrary hosts Shane Whaley and Peter Newman find out more about Charlotte Philby's latest novel, Edith and Kim. Charlotte also shares memories of her grandfather, Kim Philby, and reveals some interesting responses in the world-famous Spybrary Quickfire Round!

We get in our time machine and head for 1956 to review the latest Ian Fleming James Bond 007 novel, Diamonds Are Forever. With David Craggs, author Andy Onyx and Spybrary Host Shane Whaley. What is the Spybrary James Bond Book Club exactly and what makes it different from other 007 book clubs? On the James Bond Book Club, we get in our time machine and go back to the year of publication. We dissect each of the Ian Fleming 007 novels in order and include themes such as : 1) Discussing the timing of each book. The year in which it was written.    The zeitgeist of that time. Key historic and cultural events. 2) Background to the plot and any links to Fleming’s personal experiences. 3) The U.K.'s first edition cover art. 4) The plot. 5)  Locations 6) Bond’s character development. 7) The Villain.  8) La femme fatale. 9) The supporting cast. 10) The branding. 11) Key set pieces and the best chapters. 12) Critical reception We will not be referring to or discussing the 007 movies.