Simon Kuper at Columbia University
May 19, 2021
- 1:00 p.m. ET
Columbia University Institute for Ideas & Imagination
When George Blake died last year in Moscow aged ninety-eight, he left behind a long interview with journalist Simon Kuper about a life that had taken him from boyhood in Rotterdam and Egypt via Cambridge and the Dutch wartime resistance into the heart of the Cold War. Trained as a British spy, he was captured during the Korean War, changed sides, and ended up working for the KGB as a remarkably successful double agent.
Discussing his story and what it tells us about the nature of betrayal, loyalty and political allegiance are Simon Kuper, whose Spies, Lies, and Exile: The Extraordinary Story of Russian Double Agent George Blake will be published in the US by The New Press in May 2021 and Simon Winder, author of The Man Who Saved Britain: A Personal Journey into the Disturbing World of James Bond.
