The Spies of Winter: The CGHQ Codebreakers who fought the Cold War

Sinclair McKay, Aurum Press, 2016, 330 pp., £9.99, ISBN 978 178131 298 8.

A superbly accessible account of the intelligence war after 1945. Very good on the nature of the life, on relations with the United States, and on the hard-fought competition with the Soviet Union.

Arc of Utopia: The Beautiful Story of the Russian Revolution

Lesley Chamberlain, Reaktion Books, 2017, 192 pp. ISBN 978-1-78023-852-4.

Like Fascism, Communism drew strongly on utopian ideas. Chamberlain underlines the significance of German philosophers in presenting the ideals of the French Revolution to the Communists. The utopian background of mass murder.

Lost Warriors: Seagrim and Pagani of Burma. The last great untold story of WWII

Philip Davies, Atlantic Publishing, 2017, 264 pp., 978 1 909242 852.

A brilliant and convincing account of the British role in the Karen war against the Japanese in Burma. 

The Ghost: The Secret Life of CIA Spymaster James Jesus Angleton

Jefferson Morley, Scribe, 2017, 273 pp., £20.00, ISBN 978-1-911344-73-5.

A well-balanced account of the pluses and minuses of Angleton’s life and career. Given the damage he did to the CIA and its allies, it is the minuses that emerge; although as Morley point out Angleton had lasting influence, notably as the founding-father of American mass-surveillance policies. 

Egypt: Lost Civilisations

Christina Riggs, Reaktion Books, 2017, 183 pp., ISBN 978-1-78023-726-8, £15

Particularly interesting not as an account of Egypt but as a study of what it has subsequently meant in cultural and intellectual terms. A brief work that could well have been made longer but sprightly and interesting. 

Munich 1919: Diary of a Revolution

Victor Klemperer, Polity Press, 2107, 148 pp., ISBN 978-1-50951-058-0, £20.00

An excellent source that captures the nature of chaos during the 1918-19 revolution. The role of force emerges clearly, as does a sense of rising instability.