First published 2003
Anthony Blunt moves through the corridors of British power with careful precision. As a young man, he joins the intellectual circles of Bloomsbury, where art and politics blend in heated conversations. His expertise in art history opens doors to the highest levels of the Establishment, even as he secretly feeds information to Soviet handlers. Blunt navigates his double life while concealing his sexuality in an era when such revelations could destroy careers. For decades, he maintains his position as respected scholar and cultural authority. The careful balance he has maintained for fifty years finally collapses when Margaret Thatcher publicly names him as a traitor. Carter traces how one man sustained such an elaborate deception while ascending through Britain's elite institutions. The story reveals the personal cost of living behind multiple facades and the psychology of betrayal.
Genres: biography, historical-fiction, 20th-century, espionage, art-history, academia
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: double-life, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Bloomsbury, Britain, Soviet Union
Period: 20th Century
608 pages · Paperback · Picador