Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Compelling, July 10, 2009
This review is from: NOC: Non-Official Cover: British Secret Operations (Paperback)
The book is a memoir of a British undercover agent who served in the Secret Intelligence Service from 1971 to 1983 and was then recalled to active duty after the fall of communism. In a series of flashbacks the author provides a broad account of some of his exploits and weaves them seamlessly into his own life. Because of censorship requirements, the author had to publish his book under an assumed name and as a "fictional autobiography".
Despite this disclaimer, I was impressed that the book describes events that actually happened and that the author was actually a witness and participant in those events. The author takes great pains to include details that only an agent who lived through the events described would know. At times the additional details slow down the narrative but overall I liked the style of the author. All in all I enjoyed reading the book and would recommend it to anyone interested in "real life" espionage and cloak and dagger operations.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Arlington??? didn't get it exactly right, September 30, 2010
This review is from: NOC: Non-Official Cover: British Secret Operations (Paperback)
Interesting that this reviewer claims' about secure phones not
being used yet it clearly states there "while the STU-111 (secure
phone on GSM mobile) kicked in". Must have skipped the sentence by
mistake then criticizes it not being there yet it was. The other
point is about the speedy arrangement of currency needs and visa,
etc. "in 45 minutes". It clearly states that they had many hours to
organize the materials since the author's departure point at the
airport in Cyprus. LCA-ROM was around four hours flying time in
those days, if on time, plus half an hour added for what takes
place - including boarding and disembarking - so they had nearly
five hours to get the parts prepared - reasonably feasible? Yes.
This person is evidently NOT reading what's right there on the
pages...'
NOC: Non-Official Cover: British Secret Operations
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
4.0 out of 5 stars
Transcendent, genre-smashing, and a damn good read, January 29, 2012
This review is from: NOC: Non-Official Cover: British Secret Operations (Paperback)
Nicholas Anderson's book `NOC Non-Official Cover: British Secret Operations' would make a most remarkable achievement of fiction -- a protagonist who is a former MI6 officer and, latterly, a "freelance" British agent with a licence to kill, whose conscience about working for an organisation believing themselves to be "above the law" leads him to reveal the nefarious deeds he committed in the name of national security -- except that the enigmatic author claims every word is the God's honest truth and that he himself is the agent in question. Like paprika in a well-seasoned goulash, the ambiguity is what gives this exceptional book its added spice and lifts it head and shoulders above the normal run-of-the-mill spy yarn.
Anderson (presented as a pseudonym, like the majority of names in the book) tells us in the first few paragraphs about his signing of the Official Secrets Act, which forbids all employees of The Secret Intelligence Agency of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland of ever talking or writing about their work. This necessitates his choice of presentation of his memoir as "informed fiction." Anderson's frustration at having to adopt this ruse is obvious in his, somewhat defensive, introduction. But is this a double bluff? When he throws out the challenge to investigative journalists "... to closely follow my story: They will see the truth emerge..." is he merely piling on the mystery to tantalise us?
As one progresses through the text -- resisting the temptation to run to Google every other paragraph to check on Anderson's facts -- we soon realize it doesn't matter a damn if this is a true story or not. What matters is it's an intriguing and informed narrative that grabs the reader and pulls him along for a fascinating, insightful and sometimes philosophical glimpse into a world of which few of us are even aware, but that is totally credible by virtue of Anderson's exceptional writing skills. There are tense and hugely entertaining scenes. Characters are finely drawn. Anderson's own personality and character is gradually revealed as a fully rounded, sympathetic individual with definite opinions, with which the reader might not agree but can't help but concede have been formed by experience that is extreme and rare.
As Anderson writes: "In the end there's not a lot of difference between history and fiction because the former has been written with the latter in mind." By book's end we know this for a fact because we've been taken beyond mind-boggling events to a greater understanding of their underlying significance, regardless of their veracity. Like all good books, fiction and non-fiction, we emerge from Anderson's pages with a world empathy we may not have had before we started. An awesome (in the true sense of the word) read for more than just the cloak-and-dagger spy book fan.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
|
