Roland Philipps.
ROLAND PHILIPS
A SPY NAMED ORPHAN: THE ENIGMA OF DONALD MACLEAN (2019)
Donald Maclean (1913 - 1983) was an Englishman who spied for the Russians. Just before his arrest in 1951 the Russians helped him flee to Russia where he spent the rest of his life. As an undergraduate at Cambridge University he became a committed communist, and was recruited as a spy by the Russian agent Arnold Deutsch. He was one of the notorious Cambrige Five group of spies.
Maclean joined the Foreign Office and was in 1938 was posted to the Paris embassy. He later served in London, Washington and Egypt - all the while leaking large quantities of confidential documents to the Russians.
The Guardian described Philipps’ biography of Maclean as: ‘Brilliantly fluent...fascinating...[Philipps] writes so cleanly, and at such a clip, handling the big scenes with aplomb...This biography first grips and then lingers long in the mind. It is a page-turner of the most empathetic kind.’
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Roland Philipps went into publishing on graduating from Cambridge. He had a long publishing career, rising to be Publisher of John Murray, before turning to writing. He has edited as publisher several leading novelists, politicians, historians, travellers and biographers. A Spy Named Orphan, his first book, arises from a lifelong interest in Donald Maclean’s life. His second book, Victoire, was published by The Bodley Head in 2022. Broken Archangel: The Tempestuous Lives of Roger Casement was published by The Bodley Head in April 2024.
