Ben Macintyre

Benedict Richard Pierce Macintyre (born 25 December 1963) is a British author, historian, reviewer^[1] and columnist writing for The Times newspaper. His columns range from current affairs to historical controversies.

Early life

His father was Angus MacIntyre, the son of Major Francis MacIntyre, of the 14th/20th King's Hussars. His paternal grandmother was related to the ancestral line of Viscount Netterville. He has an elder sister, born 1962, and a younger brother, born 1971. On his mother's side he is related to the Harvey baronets and Berkeley Paget. He was educated at the Abingdon School.

Author

Macintyre is the author of a book on the gentleman criminal Adam Worth, The Napoleon of Crime: The Life and Times of Adam Worth, Master Thief. He also wrote The Man Who Would Be King: The First American in Afghanistan, and a book on the real-life double agent of Germany and Britain during the Second World War, Eddie Chapman, titled Agent Zigzag: The True Wartime Story of Eddie Chapman: Lover, Betrayer, Hero, Spy.

In 2008 Macintyre wrote an informative illustrated account of Ian Fleming, creator of the fictional spy James Bond, to accompany the For Your Eyes Only exhibition at London's Imperial War Museum, which was part of the Fleming Centenary celebrations.

Four of his books have recently been made into documentaries for the BBC: Operation Mincemeat (2010),^[2] DOUBLE AGENT: The Eddie Chapman Story (2011),^[3] "Double Cross - The True Story of the D Day Spies" (2012)^[4] and Kim Philby - His Most Intimate Betrayal.^[5]

According to the rear cover of the advance excerpt for Napoleon of Crime, the film rights were optioned by Steven Spielberg. An erratum sticker inside corrects this to DreamWorks SKG.

Macintyre's latest book (October 2016) is SAS: Rogue Heroes, 338pp, Viking.

Personal life

Macintyre was married to Kate Muir. He has three children and lives in North London.

Bibliography

Books

• Macintyre, Ben (1992). Forgotten Fatherland : the search for Elisabeth Nietzsche. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ^[6]
• The Napoleon of Crime: The Life and Times of Adam Worth, Master Thief. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1997. ISBN 978-0-374-21899-7.
• A Foreign Field. HarperCollins, 2001. ISBN 978-0-00-257122-7.
  • In the USA The Englishman's Daughter: A True Story of Love and Betrayal in World War One. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002. ISBN 978-0-374-12985-9.
• The Man Who Would Be King: The First American in Afghanistan. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2004. ISBN 978-0-374-20178-4.
• Agent Zigzag: The True Wartime Story of Eddie Chapman: Lover, Betrayer, Hero, Spy. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2007. ISBN 978-0-7475-8794-1.
• For Your Eyes Only: Ian Fleming and James Bond. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2008. ISBN 978-1-5969-1544-2.
• The Last Word: Tales from the Tip of the Mother Tongue. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2009. ISBN 978-1-4088-0333-2.
• Operation Mincemeat: The True Spy Story that Changed the Course of World War II. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2010. ISBN 978-0-7475-9868-8.
• Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2012. ISBN 978-1-4088-1990-6.
• A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2014. ISBN 978-1408851722.

Critical studies and reviews of Macintyre's work

• Gladwell, Malcolm (July 28, 2014). "A Critic at Large: Trust No One". The New Yorker. 90 (21): 70–75. Retrieved 30 September 2014.  Includes review of A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal.
• Fitzpatrick, Sheila (Sep 2014). "'One of us' : the spy who relished deception". Australian Book Review. 364: 27–28.  Review of A spy among friends.

References

External links

• "Ben Macintyre, columnist", is Macintyre's op-ed page at The Times.