The Guardian ·
Redwood by Ben Macintyre review – a superbly wrought tale of cold war defection
This story of Soviet agent and his MI6 handler in revolutionary Iran is a page-turning masterpiece
Ben Macintyre uses the acronym MICE to describe the reasons people betray their countries: Money, Ideology, Coercion or Ego. In the set-piece that opens his latest work of true-espionage, we discover a new reason: erectile dysfunction.
Stressed, drinking too much, under constant surveillance, furious about the corruption of his colleagues and frustrated with his home life, the KGB’s Vladimir Kuzichkin is offering to betray the secrets of his homeland and its Iranian allies, if only a British doctor can help him have sex again.
If you have read Macintyre before, you’ll recognise a classic example of his style: the journalist’s eye for salacious detail combined with a historian’s rigour. The rest of Redwood lives up to the attention-grabbing opening scene; I devoured it in a single sitting.
