Zigzag: The Incredible Wartime Exploits of Double Agent Eddie Chapman (Hardcover)

by Nicholas Booth (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Broadcaster and author Booth (The Encyclopedia of Space) mines the newly released World War II records of Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (MI5) for this lively and sympathetic account of celebrated double agent Eddie Chapman. A petty criminal, Chapman was incarcerated in a Jersey jail when the Germans occupied the Channel Islands in 1940. After his release, he offered to work for German military intelligence and received training as a saboteur and spy in occupied France. He parachuted into England in 1942 with orders to blow up an aircraft factory, but contacted British intelligence once on the ground. Despite their misgivings—his handlers variously described Chapman as a very strange character and a man without any scruples—MI5 employed him as a double agent for the remainder of the war. There are legitimate questions as to the enigmatic Chapman's motivation, but Booth, who collaborated with Chapman's widow, Betty, invariably sides with the double agent against his critics. In Booth's judgment, Chapman was the most remarkable spy of the Second World War, and his treatment by British intelligence was shameful. Whether rogue or patriot, his story makes for intriguing reading, but Booth's transparent cheerleading for Chapman detracts from an otherwise enjoyable biography. (Sept.)
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From Booklist
Booth's Zig Zag is the longer of the two, going into greater detail about Eddie's life before he became a spy and into the histories of some of the people he knew and worked with. Drawing heavily on the memories of Eddie's widow, Betty Chapman, as well as recently declassified documents (such as Chapman's MI5 file), the book tells a very personal, intimate story. Booth also takes pains to remind us, from time to time, that Eddie, who wrote or authorized several autobiographical works in the 1950s and 1960s, was a habitual and expert liar and that nothing he says about himself should be taken at face value. The book, therefore, has an air of mystery about it, and despite the author's extensive documentation, we wonder at the end if we have yet heard the real story of Eddie Chapman. Pitt, David

Product Details

• Hardcover: 408 pages
• Publisher: Arcade Publishing (September 4, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1559708603
• ISBN-13: 978-1559708609
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #441,473 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Agent Zigzag to the British, Agent Fritz to the Germans, September 29, 2007

By	R. Hardy "Rob Hardy" (Columbus, Mississippi USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

During World War II, Eddie Chapman bore the codename "Zigzag", given to him by his British masters at MI5. Such names were supposed to be close to meaningless; the point was to keep Chapman and his work secret. But some spymaster allowed a shade of meaning into Chapman's designator; he had zigged through the British criminal underworld, zagged through the ranks of German espionage, and MI5 had trouble understanding where he was coming from or where he would show up next. "Without a doubt he was the most remarkable spy of the Second World War," writes Nicholas Booth in _Zigzag: The Incredible Wartime Exploits of Double Agent Eddie Chapman_ (Arcade Publishing). Chapman has had his biographies before, and even a couple of autobiographies which are not really to be trusted because, well, he was Eddie Chapman, and also because of censorship restrictions, still in place when Chapman brought out his "real" story in 1966. Now the official secrecy is lifted and archives opened, and with the help of Chapman's longsuffering but devoted widow, Booth has researched Chapman's story as much as it probably will ever be. It's one of those stories that if it were brought out as a novel, it would be dismissed as lacking any grounds for credibility. Chapman was a clever, devious fellow, and MI5 harnessed the deviousness without ever rewarding him or acknowledging how much the nation was in Chapman's debt.

Chapman was born in 1914 and drifted to London in the mid-1930s, where, in his own words, he "met and mixed with all types of tricky people, racecourse crooks, touts, thieves, prostitutes and the flotsam of the nightlife of a great city." He was a small-time crook and went on to a specialty of blowing up safes. He was languishing in prison on the island of Jersey when the Germans took it over in 1940. The Germans recruited him as an agent and he was sent to training in France courtesy of the Abwehr, the intelligence branch of the German armed forces. In December 1942, Chapman was parachuted to Britain with a radio set, and he contacted the British Secret Service, who helped him pretend to blow up an aircraft factory. It was enough to impress his German controllers when he radioed them of his results, and when he returned to Germany, they were overjoyed to have him back. They presented him with the Iron Cross medal (Booth says it may have been a less prestigious medal than the Iron Cross, but still, he was the only Briton to win one). In 1944 when the German V-weapons were being developed, Chapman was parachuted again into Britain (the only double agent to make the crossing twice), and was there for the rest of the war. He transmitted reports about the landing points of the V-1 buzzbombs, reports that falsely indicated the bombs were overreaching their targets. Thereafter, bombs sent to destroy London began falling short in the fields of Kent.

The money and medal from Germany would be more recognition than Chapman would get from Britain. MI5 did arrange to wipe his previous convictions clean, and though after the war Chapman was involved in some dodgy enterprises and had to go to court, he was never again in prison. He and his wife, the woman he was visiting Jersey with at the time of his arrest there, stayed married until his death in 1997. Booth's tender interviews with her show that she remains smitten with him though he had little notion of fidelity. Chapman, MI5 finally acknowledged, was devoted to himself, to adventure, and to his country, in that order, and it was handy that MI5 could harness the first two to the use of the third. Here is a complex picture of a strange man, a fellow who ingratiated himself to others easily, was helpful and polite, and had a sociopathic interest in getting his own way and didn't mind doing it dishonestly. His wife remembers his motto was, "Never resist temptation." Not at all an attractive character as revealed in this entertaining biography, but entered into the war, with his sociopathy at the call of his country, and despite himself, he became some sort of a hero.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Top story, shame about the writing, February 1, 2008

By	A. Currie (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Perhaps my one-sentence summary is a tad harsh. But this book could really use a good editor. The general style is fine - nothing wrong with colloquial turns-of-phrase dominating such books, to my mind. And it does, in places, flow well and the overall style does at times complement the story itself.

But Booth's prose is peppered with errors and slips. His sentences often read as if they have been written quickly and only reviewed in a cursory manner. Booth often falls into the trap of replacing colloquial with cliche, can be repetitive - whether with word shadows or with events - and occasionally uses phrases whose meaning is the exact opposite of what he's trying to convey. For example, when asserting that one of Chapman's British interrogators was perhaps warming to him slightly, he writes "He soon became aware that his tormentor was unbending slightly." Forgive me if I'm wrong here, but "unbending" is another word for inflexible or stubborn, no?

And for what it's worth his use of, and translation from, German is at times atrocious - though that probably marks me out for the pedant I am!

Beyond that, the only big flaw is that Booth is too willing to give Chapman and his wife the benefit of the doubt - when a wife who has been continuously cheated on says it wasn't the man's fault that women came after him, that's not grounds for dismissing Chapman's reputation as a Lothario. It's more like someone trying to deceive herself.

BUT, it is a cracking story, and Booth has researched the subject well - though I tend to agree that Chapman's actual effectiveness is somewhat overblown. So despite the flaws, I still enjoyed it - I like the subject matter, and the structure Booth puts into the story works well. The writing, though, drops it to a two star from three or even possibly four stars.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Zigzag, October 2, 2007

By	Frank M. Mutz "FM" (Atlanta, Georgia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Great book. Gripping. The reader gets a good understanding of war life for civilians, law enforcement, and spies in England, France, and Germany during World War II. I could not put this book down.