Churchill's Iceman: The True Story of Geoffrey Pyke: Genius, Fugitive, Spy - Hardcover

Hemming, Henry

3.58

477 ratings by Goodreads

9781848094437: Churchill's Iceman: The True Story of Geoffrey Pyke: Genius, Fugitive, Spy

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1848094434 ISBN 13: 9781848094437

Publisher: Preface, 2014

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After his suicide in 1948, Geoffrey Pyke was described as one of the geniuses of his time; only now can this biography reveal the full extent of his strange achievements. The epithet 'Iceman' referred to a 1942 project to have Churchill build an aircraft carrier of reinforced ice; he also thought up Mass Observation, earned a fortune on the stock market and wrote a bestseller; but MI5 had material suggesting he was a senior Soviet Comintern official and a spy.

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About the Author:

Henry Hemming is the author of four previous books, including Misadventure in the Middle East which was shortlisted for the Dolman Travel Book Award. He has written for publications including The Times, Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail, Financial Times, Washington Post and The Economist. He lives in London with his wife and daughter.

Review:

"The papers that MI5 released in 2009 have led to the discovery of a wonderful new subject for modern biography. Geoffrey Pyke was a tragic and lonely genius who attempted to plant new ideas into the unresponsive soil of Britain during the first half of the twentieth century. His final wish "to be forgotten as if I had never lived" has now been dramatically eclipsed by this amazing story of mystery and adventure. It is as if he had been invented by G. K. Chesterton and given posthumous fame by John le Carre - which underlines the extraordinary accomplishment of his actual biographer Henry Hemming." -- Michael Holroyd "His was not a lucky life but, in his biographer, he has gained a little bit of posthumous luck. This admirable and thoroughly enjoyable book should rescue a weirdly original and innovative talent from oblivion" The Sunday Times "A biography that reads wonderfully like an adventure story and looks set to restore to Pyke the fame he deserves... Hemming's great achievement is to turn the story of a nerdish chameleon into a page-turner and to make someone hitherto unknown seem crucial to his century" Guardian

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