Customer Reviews

Anthony Blunt: His Lives

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Miranda Carter's biography of Anthony Blunt in an engrossing account of a man who lived multiple careers, some of the contradictory. In the 1940s he helped establish the discipline of art history in England, became one of its leading scholars, even art curator to Buckingham Palace. All the while he was spying for the Soviet Union. Ms. Carter has structured her book like an onion, peeling back the layers of her subject's life, including his colorful homosexual pursuits, until he is exposed as a spy in 1979. Hers is a very sympathetic portrait, and in the final 100 pages Ms. Carter even conveys the tragic dimension of Blunt when he is humiliated in public.

This is not just another tell-all biography. Ms. Carter scrupulously weighs earlier evidence from Blunt's friends and foes, accepting or rejecting them according to rigorous standards. Hardly a detail finds its way into her pages that is not based on a checked source. Ms. Carter has also accessed Soviet espionage files and agents' accounts that have come to light since 1989. Her book is a masterful piece of research that is also at times amusing and sad.

Unfortunately, Ms. Carter's publisher, Farrar Straus and Giroux, does not seem to share her scruples for detail. They have printed an American edition that is downright slovenly. Reader beware: there are typos and/or omitted words on the following pages: 66, 80, 300, 351, 363, 402, 404, 429 and 448. And these are just the ones I spotted.

The individuals who comprised The Cambridge Five have been extensively documented as individuals as well as a group. Miranda Carter's book is worthwhile for it not only brings truly new information to this man's duplicity; she also spends a great deal of time on the man himself. This is a thorough autobiography and not just a spy novel barely elevated to the non-fiction category. Some readers may find the book too long on the man and too brief on his activities as a spy. Anthony Blunt was a traitor, but to limit his long life to that one word is to greatly minimize who this man was. The wide-ranging life he lead together with the positions of influence he held outside of intelligence agencies, makes him an even more fascinating character. None of his actions diminish or justify his perfidious conduct; they do make him much more than a one-dimensional traitor to his country.

Most of the spies that are exposed today have often become extremely wealthy for betraying their country. When Blunt was first recruited it was during a time when the Oxford Union Society within the college carried the debate with the motion, "that this house declines to fight for King or Country". In October of 1933 the Labor Party on, "no issue but the pacifist one", according to Stanley Baldwin replaced the Conservatives. And Europe in general was not interested much less enthusiastic about a second world war less than a generation after the first finally ended. Persons notable not only for their fame but also for their gullibility marketed Communism with success including their tours and subsequent spreading of nonsense regarding Potemkin Villages. These folks were believers; they were not making a living. They were supporting something they actually believed in at one time as opposed to those who are on the hunt for their various pieces of silver.

What Miranda Carter meticulously documents is Blunt's life as a nearly unbroken series of either unconventional or anti-establishment choices. There is also a great deal of evidence that as competent an art historian as he may have been, it also appears participating in art fraud was yet another of this man's defects. I found her documentation of his almost ascetic living conditions interesting as well.

There may be something that I am missing but I was amazed with the leniency England treated men like Blunt. In 1964 he admitted to his activities for which he was granted complete immunity. It was not until Margaret Thatcher revealed this deal in 1979 out of either personal anger or thought for political gain was he finally exposed. As the defections of his more notorious comrades had already taken place and England had been greatly embarrassed, it seems odd that fear of further embarrassment would cause them to make a deal with this criminal long after he was a meaningful asset to the Former USSR. Miranda Carter also documents the periods when none of the Cambridge Recruits were believed to be genuine by Moscow, and how vast amounts of information they delivered was never even read.

I have read a number of books on this topic and would recommend this book for anyone who is interested. I expect there will be more books if and when additional documents are found/released, but until then this is the best work I have read on Blunt.

Miranda Carter's intriguing new book has everything one would want if this had been merely a spy novel. The good news is that Anthony Blunt was the real thing. Carter's in-depth approach and occasional analysis takes what could have been an ordinary book and raises it several notches. She gives the reader an astounding amount of the rich detail of Blunt's life from his birth to his death while still allowing one to judge Blunt's actions in the context of his times. How one man could move so effortlessly through the upper crust of British society (he maintained good relations with the Royal family) while passing documents to Russia over a period of years without the knowledge of his family and many of his friends is a mystery deserving of a book like this one.

Unfortunately, the narrative sometimes suffers. Carter's writing style, while informative, tends to be dry and overloaded with names that have little bearing on Blunt's life. With often minimal introduction to the large cast of characters she tends to dive into paragraphs as if she were in the middle of an explanation. I found myself on many an occasion wanting to reach for a roster of names as I tried to remember how each one fit in to the story. It has the tendency of slowing down the reading almost to a point of disinterest.

That being said, this book is well worth it. Carter has given us a unique look at a man whose double life (in so many ways) was extraordinary. Her service to her subject and to us lies in her research. Each reader may come to different conclusions about Anthony Blunt but it is to Miranda Carter's credit that she has taken the time and the care to present him to us.

Anthony Blunt was a child of the British Establishment, born to a middle class family with Church of England and royal connections. He received a fine education at Marlborough and Cambridge and became one of the most acclaimed art historians and teachers in Britain in the twentieth century. At the same time, he was a spy for the Soviets. The story of how Blunt became a communist, worked against his country while supposedly serving it in MI5 during World War II, then became a courtier for two monarchs and the highly regarded head of the Courtald Institute, which he made into one of the finest art schools in the country, is fascinating.

Blunt was a man of many contradictions. At the same time he stood at the side of the Royal Family as the Surveyor of their art collection he was leading a secret gay life notorious for its seaminess. While he appeared to be a pillar of the Establishment he gave secret information to the Soviets and became the long sought after Fourth Man who was in league with Burgess, Maclean, and Philby before they defected to Russia. When he was unmasked in the 1960s the British government did its own contradictory little dance around him, granting him immunity while pumping him for information.

Miranda Carter is sympathetic to Blunt and emphasizes his positives, like his fine teaching abilities and helpfulness to many of his students, but without whitewashing his treasonous activities. She helps us understand the pressure Blunt was under for many years and the fear of being unmasked that dominated him until he was finally publically denounced in 1979. Above all, she does a fine job of depicting the man's numerous contradictions. Highly recommended.

From the first time (probably thousands of years ago) a monarch or military leader identified an "information gap" concerning an enemy, there has been a need for what is generally referred to now as "intelligence." I have just read Steven Fink's new book, Sticky Fingers, in which he suggests how to respond to the global risk of economic espionage. Much of his book focuses on what is now known as the "Avery Dennison/Four Pillars Spy Case." In recent years, we have learned about spies and counterspies such as Aldrich Ames and Robert Philip Hanssen. Many of us remain interested in others such as those known as "the Cambridge Spies" of whom Anthony Blunt was one. (The others were Guy Burgess, John Cairncross, Donald MacLean, and Kim Philby.) Even today, it is impossible to determine the nature and extent of all the damage they did to the British and American intelligence communities during and then following World War II . This is both a biography of Blunt (1907-1983) and an analysis of the society in which he was raised, educated, and then employed. He eventually became a highly regarded art historian while continuing his activities as a double agent. Blunt began to provide highly classified documents to the Russians in 1941; was discovered and then granted immunity (in 1964) in exchange for what was believed to be full disclosure of his activities and associates; and then was publicly denounced by Prime Minister Thatcher in 1979.

Given the information available to her at the time she wrote this book, Miranda Carter has provided about as comprehensive an examination of Blunt's several "lives" as can possibly be reconstructed. I must assume that her two greatest obstacles were, first, the necessarily secretive, indeed defensive nature of the global intelligence community (even after the demise of the U.S.S.R.) and second, the extraordinarily detached personality of Blunt himself. With consummate skill, he devised and sustained so many different "lives" which resemble, for me, a series of "bulkheads." Gaining entry to any one of them (much less to all of them) would have required exceptional patience as well as persistence. It is to Carter's great credit that she was able to gather, evaluate, and correlate so much information and then present it eloquently in a narrative worthy of Dickens. Those who enjoyed reading this book as much as I did may wish to check out Christopher Andrew's For the President's Eyes Only: Secret Intelligence and the American Presidency from Washington to Bush, Christopher Felix' A Short Course in the Secret War, and Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones's The CIA and American Democracy.

In 1979, aged 72, eminent British art historian, Anthony Blunt, was exposed as a former spy for Russia. Many books recount Blunt's espionage, but British journalist Miranda Carter has written a complete biography. Fans of Bloomsbury will find new insights, and the author devotes half the book to Blunt's art career. Her exhaustive research into WWII espionage has produced a definitive and often amusing story.

Immediately after being unmasked, Blunt became a social outcast. Tabloids described him as "the spy with no shame." Besides passing secrets, he was accused of being a sexual pervert, a plagiarizer, a dishonest appraiser, and someone who bought valuable paintings on the cheap from unsuspecting friends. Consulted about a libel suit, his lawyer explained that Blunt's spying had defamed his name so badly that no further defamation was possible.

As an undergraduate in Cambridge, he was a member in good standing of the fashionable Bloomsbury Group, still going strong in the 1920s. Recognition for his art criticism came early. No one looked on him as a political activist. Bloomsbury faded with the depression and rise of fascism; many members turned to communism, but Blunt wasn't among them. He must have been attracted, however, because his art criticism took on a distinctly Marxist tone for a few years. His attraction must have been more intense because of what followed. Joining the Intelligence Service after the outbreak of war, he passed thousands of documents to the Russians. Flooded with material by enthusiastic English spies, Russian officials were deeply skeptical. In any case, there was far too much, so many documents were filed and ignored. The paranoid Stalin was avid to learn of British plots against Russia. That none turned up merely increased his suspicion, but eventually the Soviets realized their good fortune. Spying seemed a sideline for Blunt. Art was his true love, and he wrote several important books during the war. After leaving the government, Blunt's spying stopped, and he became a renown art historian. However, many in British counterintelligence had their suspicions. When Burgess and Maclean defected in 1951, suspicions grew stronger, but no one in high places had a taste for another embarassing spy scandal, so it was decided to let matters lie.

A man of modest historical importance, Blunt lived a complex life in fascinating times, and this book does him justice.

Miranda Carter has been justly acclaimed for producing a biography on Anthony Blunt that cuts through all the weird and assorted myths that have attached to him over the years since the revelations of his spying were made public. This book is richly rewarding as it connects the many lives of this very private public figure. Blunt is a complex personality and it took thorough research and the skill of a good writer to fully appreciate and capture these many and varied layers. The examination into the world of academia and art history was particularly well done and held the interest of this reader. I picked up this book because of the spying details but, to my surprise, found myself as riveted by all the other aspects of this man's live. This book, unlike all the others written about the Cambridge spies, does not come with an axe to grind and it is all the stronger for that abscence. Highly recommended.

Miranda Carter has written a splendid book about Anthony Blunt, appropriately subtitled, "his lives." Reading about the Cambridge Fellow, Soldier, Double Agent, Art-Historian, Director of the Cortauld Institute, Surveyor of the King's/Queens Pictures, etc., etc., is like peeling an onion, or perhaps--more appropriately--opening a Russian Matrioshka doll. As one probes into a deeper layer one discovers yet another persona, and although one might begin to understand Blunt's motives, one never really gets to know who he really was, thanks to his ability to compartmentalize his multifarious activities and interests.

Although I began the book with considerable prejudice, since Anthony Blunt seems to have prospered while his fellow Cambridge spies were living comparatively miserable lives in Moscow, Ms. Carter's sensitive portrayal of this man, whose aloofness stemmed from a fundamental insecurity, changed my mind. She shows us a man who was unwavering in his ideals and loyal to his friends (He waited until 1964--after Guy Burgess had died and Philby and Maclean were 'safe' in Moscow-- to admit his complicity.). She also portrays a tormented man, whose ability to lose himself in his art-history scholarship preserved his sanity and probably saved his life. Publicly disgraced in 1979, stripped of his knighthood and other honors (after a promise of immunity), deserted by all except a few loyal friends, he died soon after. Miranda Carter depicts him as a man who was courageous but tragically flawed.

This book is meticulously researched, so much so that an average enthusiast of espionage literature may find himself adrift among the dozens of friends, acquaintances and enemies whom Anthony Blunt knew, not only Guy Burgess, Kim Philby and the other Cambridge spy protagonists, but also literary figures, including Julian Bell, Louis MacNeice, W.H. Auden; and other characters--who have come in for their own share of speculation--Victor Rothschild, Michael Straight and Goronwy Rees. Precisely because of the plethora of names, the book presents a fascinating glimpse into a fifty-year history of Great Britain from the 1920's onward. And while probably only the most passionate art historians will read every word about Nicholas Poussin and Baroque Rome, the persistent reader will be rewarded by a colorful and witty glimpse into the outrageous life and times of Guy Burgess (Inexplicably no one has written a biography of the wayward spy, but if they do, it should probably be called "My Noisy War"!).

For those afficionados who cannot get enough of the Cambridge Spies (Judging from the numbers of books still being published about them, half a century later, such readers are numerous.), this book is highly recommended!

This superb biography reveals in depth the many "lives" led by art historian spy Anthony Blunt who worked concurrently for British and Soviet espionage agencies during WW II, but actually betrayed his homeland. Miranda Carter deeply researches her subject going into the notorious Blunt's salad days as a disconsolate, lonely, and abused student. The author follows her subject into Great Depression England when communism turns appealing to the leftist intellects especially homosexuals like Blunt that distrusted and often felt paranoid about English authority. During WW II, Blunt served in British intelligence, enabling him to supply secrets to the Soviets. When his friends defected to the Soviet Union, Blunt and other Cambridge intellectual playmates were investigated. In 1964, he received immunity in exchange for his cooperation. The embarrassed British intelligence community kept his secret for fifteen years until Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher exposed Blunt in 1979.

Miranda Carter provides an incredible insight into the life of one of the strangest enigmatic individuals of the past century. The author paints the complete picture so that fans of true life espionage stories and biographies in general will simultaneously be stunned yet bluntly fascinated by this spy, almost two decades after his death. ANTHONY BLUNT HIS LIVES is an intelligent and engaging true-life account of the infamous art historian counterspy worth reading.

Harriet Klausner

Ms. Carter's superb biography of Anthony Blunt examines the three subjects most prominent to his life; his homosexuality, his role as the fabled "the Fourth Man" in the Cambridge web of Soviet spies and his art scholarship and leadership of London's Courtauld Institute. Her writing is clean, polished and erudite. Understanding of, rather than sympathetic to Blunt, her treatment of his sexuality and his various lovers is fair and uncritical. In placing the wild and dangerous Guy Burgess at the center of the spy ring, she cushions Blunt's spying with balance and perspective in stark contrast to the sensationalism of the English press and Peter Wright's 1987 book "Spycatcher." The Cambridge spying scandal has obsessed British writing for almost fifty years; one has only to be aware of Le Carre's early spy works and the 1998 John Banville novel " The Untouchable." Carter's grasp of Blunt's contributions to art history, to his scholarship on Poussin, Mansart and Borromini is what interested this reader. She is obviously well read in these fields; one feels that beyond the sex and the spying, this is the book's real value. Blunt's personal evolving tug in his appreciation of classicism versus modernism is revealing and instructive. The names who fill the pages of his life are a catalogue of noted writers and artists; Auden, Louis MacNeice, E.M. Forster, Anita Brookner, John Betjeman, to name a few. By book's end, the story turns tragic as Blunt, the aging fox grievously wounded at the end of the hunt, is accosted by the hounds of the press and public outrage after Margaret Thatcher's betrayal of her government's long standing confidentiality pledge with him. I look forward to reading more of Miranda Carter's work.