Agent Zigzag: A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love, and Betrayal

This is the second book I have read by Ben McIntyre (the first was “A Spy Among Friends”, about Kim Philby) and I continue to be impressed. There exists a genre called ‘historical fiction’ in which an author writes a story that takes place sometime in the past, maybe in the same time frame as an important event, or maybe about some important historical figure. There are various levels of accuracy – sometimes there is nothing historical whatsoever other than the story takes place in the past. Or sometimes a story is a reenactment of actual events, grounded in reality and with evidence of significant research. Then there are the books written by masters of the genre who create highly readable, thoroughly engaging accounts of actual historical events that transport the reader into the era and read like the best modern day thriller (Steven Pressfield, Robert Harris, and David L. Robbins come to mind).Ben McIntyre is one such author whose works are at the very top level of the genre. He has the rare ability to turn the results of his exhaustive, stunningly complete research into a book that reads like a top shelf novel but drips with authenticity at every turn. In “Agent Zigzag”, we learn of the exploits of Eddie Chapman, an Englishman with an extensive criminal record who becomes a spy for the Germans but ultimately becomes a double agent run by the British. Despite his past, he becomes quite successful, supplying information to the British, supplying disinformation to the Germans, and earning the respect of both sides while doing it. He is one of the few spies who actually provided information which helped turn the war in favor of the Allies. In fact, one of his British handlers stated that his exploits were so incredible that they were beyond conception for the writer of fiction.The book starts with Eddie the criminal deserting his lunch date by jumping out of a window as the police close in on him, and ends with Eddie the spy encountering that same woman (whom he marries) in a different restaurant after the war is over. In between the lunch dates, he gets picked up by police, gets sentenced to jail, gets collected by the Germans, and learns tradecraft, bomb making, and wireless communications. He is parachuted into England, where he immediately goes to work for the Allies and commences to supply his German handlers with disinformation, perform various espionage tasks, and help in measurable ways to win the war. He even returns to the Germans, survives numerous interrogations, and proceeds to supply his English handlers with information straight from the heart of enemy territory.The text is clear and readable, with proper grammar and structure. It is alive, however, and delivers the story at the pace of the best novel, but is peppered throughout with references to material obtained from MI5 archives, interviews, and other history sources. In fact, the last fifty plus pages are footnotes on the sources from which the material was obtained. If high school history texts were this well written, there would be a lot more historians around.This book is quite entertaining and satisfying, and at the end you will have learned things about the covert side of WWII that you would never have known otherwise. And all along the way you will marvel at how one man can do so many things and live to tell about it. I recommend “Agent Zigzag”.

"Agent Zig Zag" is a far better book than "Zig Zag," the other book about Eddie Chapman, the extraordinary WWII double agent with loyalties to the Brits. However, for all the hype about these two books, neither is a "thriller," per se, and both tell what is mostly an interesting (sometimes fascinating) "period piece" story about the unlikely thief-criminal-womanizer-sociopath who became a famous -- if barely trusted -- spy for Britain. "Agent Zig Zag" is more of a psychological accounting of Chapman than anything, and yet the story does give a very well crafted "insider" view of WWII, a perspective that few other novels or books about WWII espionage ever have done -- and I've read most of them! One is left with a (though possibly quite biased) clear insight into the workings of the Abwehr and also its counter part, the British Intelligence Service. How anything ever got done by either is a small miracle. Eddie Chapman, the spy in question, is thoroughly unlikeable and wholly unsympathetic. One can admire his heroics, his risk-taking, and his sheer "bon vivant" style of being a spy and of living his life in general. He was smart, that I can give him. My criticism of the other book ("Zig Zag") is tempered by this book. "Zig Zag's" author fawns over Eddie Chapman and makes you feel guilty if you don't agree with the author's over-wrought sense of how the Brits never honored Chapman's achievements -- in other words, those "ungrateful Brits." Here, in "Agent Zig Zag" with this author, you are free to decide that for yourself. Both books, however, are flawed from this standpoint: NEITHER book spells out in clear form EXACTLY what it is that Eddie Chapman actually DID -- over the course of his engagement by both the Germans and the Brits other than the fact that he did NOT GET CAUGHT by the Germans -- to really and truly help or assist in the outcome of the war!! The people who deserve credit for whatever it is Chapman accomplished are his team of British handlers (and to a lesser extent his German handlers), those very smart men who designed his activities, who created the deceptions and who protected him from his own self-destructive ways. Most of the time, as I understood the story, whether Eddie was in Madrid, Paris, Oslo, Berlin, Lisbon or London, he lived a high and rather easy life of booze, women, and debauchery. Very little of his character is admirable and almost none of his behavior stands the test of devotion to duty or to people. He really was a jerk. He betrayed nearly everyone he ever met. He made false promises to at least 3 women who loved him, whereupon he abandoned them for other women. He remained married to one of them, Betty Farmer, throughout his life, but that marriage lasted only because Farmer did not abandon him! Today, he would be diagnosed as a psychopath or sociopath, an angry and unpredictable abuser, and alcoholic, a man with little conscience and one who rarely learned from experience -- someone who relied on his charm and false social skills to get what he wanted -- usually money, women, booze and high risk adventures -- for the thrill of it. So, what you get with this book is clear insight into the espionage scene in WWII and an in-depth psychological profile of a thoroughly despicable man, who may have helped the allied cause as a result of his recruitment to play off both sides against each other for his own fanatical need for adventure. But the question remains in my mind: just what indeed did he do -- for either side? The answer is not found in this book, no matter how well-written it is. I truly liked the book.

Ben Macintyre, a quite superb writer, has a knack of unearthing gems of stories. A previous book, A Foreign Field, told the remarkable tale of four British soldiers given sanctuary in a French village during the First World War after being marooned behind enemy lines. Now he has told the equally remarkable story of Second World War double agent Eddie Chapman.Chapman, a criminal, sybarite and serial philanderer, found himself on Jersey when the Germans invaded and was transferred to a hellhole of a prison in Paris. The only way out of this benighted existence was to volunteer his services to the Abwehr as a secret agent. Eventually accepted, he was then parachuted into England, where he promptly landed flat on his face and then swiftly handed himself over to the police and volunteered to become a secret agent.Get the picture? This was a man who first and foremost was driven by self-interest. Yet, as Macintyre makes clear, Chapman was not that simple a character. He developed a genuine affection for his Abwehr controllers. As for his many female conquests, he always professed undying affection, an emotion that was uniformly reciprocated.Even his British secret service superiors, who, correctly, treated him initially with hostility and suspicion, succumbed to his undoubted charm and ability. Only when he volunteered to assassinate Hitler and go out in a blaze of glory did they curb his patent enthusiasm for espionage. That he was eventually sacked as an agent owed far more to another man's jealousy than to Chapman's failings.Ben Macintyre tells Chapman's story with panache, affection and tremendous wit. In the course of Agent Zigzag, there are many charming and touching vignettes, none more so than the case of Praetorius, one of Chapman's Abwehr minders. A fan of all things English, but especially folk dancing, Praetorius eventually left the secret service and was appointed dance instructor to the Wehrmacht in the middle of the war. It makes you wonder why it took so long for the Germans to lose.

I’ve read several books by this author and they’ve always been fascinating reads. This starts off well too. Chapman was a pretty unpleasant criminal, but obviously a clever and charming one by the way he plays both the German and British secret services against each other and also his many lady friends. There’s no doubt he was an outlandish adventurer, brave even, but there was only one side he was interested in. His own. So in this way he’s not actually a very nice person and despite his derring do it’s difficult to warm to him. Despite a good start the book seems to run out of steam about two thirds through with little left to talk about. This was disappointing as previous books have continued to grip until the end. Nevertheless an interesting read about a character I knew nothing about during the dark days of the war.

By the end of this book I still didn’t really think Eddie Chapman was of particular importance or interest in WW2. He just seemed to do whatever suited him and his handlers on both sides used him for their own purposes none of which really seemed to have much to do with actual espionage, it just seemed like little boys plating silly games and not particularly vital. The fact the British didn’t even know what he was doing or where he was when he returned to Germany seemed ludicrous. Just like much of things revealed with declassification, it seemed haphazard, ill thought out and more to do with the old boy network getting one up on each other. Not the most interesting or enjoyable book in my opinion. I like to learn things when I read and this really didn’t leave me feeling I’d learned anything or even felt the tension of the war years. Almost like a James Bond novel

A story based on real life,hard to belive watched the movie Triple cross starring Christopher Plummer and was so amazed that I got this book it was based on the real life of Eddie Chapman and was fact based, a story of a man who broke into houses and safes and ended up in prison,who then became a double agent working for Germany and Britain during the second world war.You start to realise where the idea for James Bond concept came from and was based on. Like Bond Chapman had nerves of steel and a eye for beautiful ladies as well as almost being found out a few times he still returned to carry out his missions,his final mission to help divert rockets aimed at London, amazing read.

Ben Macintyre's real life account of spy, Eddie Chapman, reads like a thriller. Although packed with fact, the text is gripping and I was keen to know what happened next.Source material is annotated and accessible and there's a veracity to the content which makes the story an exciting and relevant read. This book links well with others by the author, who writes with authority about espionage and duplicity in WWII. Chapman was a no mark crook who d beloved a taste for the high life. There's a strange naivety about the way in which disaffected individuals were 'turned'. Macintyre explores the way in which Chapman reached a position where he was content to maybe betray his country. But he also explores other possibility and the reader is left to judge the truth. Informed, intelligent, compelling and written with verve and a real sense of adventure.