Overall, I think just learning about stuff I had never known about is what gets me intrigued in history. So it’s that side of things I thought I’d dip my toe into and see if the time period was for me. It’s the ‘sexy’ side of war that birthed a whole genre of spy novels and films, giving us characters like James Bond from Flemming’s novels. Spies, double agents and the shady secrecy of the secret service is the stuff of every young kid’s imagination when it comes to the war (when you get past the tanks, explosions and all-out atrocities being committed during that dreadful time). Since his passing, I decided to give one of his keen interests a look and I’m absolutely thrilled I did where Agent Zigzag is concerned. That being said, my father was a massive reader and serial show-watcher where WW2 was concerned. Due to that, it lost its appeal to me when looking to learn about history in my spare time. History is one of my great loves in life, but when we were at school WW2 was the only history we ever learned about. I’ve never really been one to go in for shows or books about World War 2. But, as his spymasters and many lovers often wondered, who was the real Eddie Chapman?īen Macintyre weaves together diaries, letters, photographs, memories and top-secret MI5 files to create an exhilarating account of Britain’s most sensational double agent. Dashing and suave, courageous and unpredictable, Chapman was by turns a traitor, a hero, a villain and a man of conscience. His name was Eddie Chapman, but he would shortly become MI5’s Agent Zigzag. His mission: to sabotage the British war effort. One December night in 1942, a Nazi parachutist landed in a Cambridgeshire field.

Double cross ben macintyre review