Bøker av James Hanning

This book seeks to discover the real Richard Booth, who is seen in a remarkable number of guises by friend and foe. Most striking is how opinions of Booth contradict one another. Former girlfriends call the thrice-married Booth a deeply sensitive, thwarted romantic, while former colleagues howl with laughter at the suggestion, calling him a promiscuous, sex-mad monster. Was he an out-of-control boozer or an outgoing and generous charmer? Was he ultra-competitive in the company of others, or a generous-spirited patron of the arts who wanted above all to encourage the talents of others? The chronicle of how Hay became famous has never been written. Recent books on the place have been guide books, rather than portraits of Hay's idiosyncrasies. Nor has anyone catalogued the day-to-day folly of the early Booth years, a true Alice in Wonderland adventure of excess and financial incontinence. Booth's autobiography, largely penned for him by his step-daughter, is a readable but highly partial version of events.

Love & Deception is the extraordinary story of how Eleanor, an able, cultured American living in the espionage hot spot of 1950s Beirut, fell in love with the kindest, most sensitive of men. Unknown to her, that man, a Lebanon-based journalist, Kim Philby, was under suspicion by the British and US intelligence services of having secretly signed up to help the Russians fight fascism in the 1930s, and of remaining in their pay at the height of the Cold War. Despite his mysterious past, Eleanor adored and married Philby, who later begged her to defy his difficulties. As the net closed in on Philby, he manoeuvred to save himself, but would their love survive?The outline of Philby's story is familiar to many, but Love & Deception breaks remarkable new ground - even for spy buffs. Through in-depth research, Hanning produces an eye-opening tale of friendship, politics, love, and loyalty.

The first book on the tabloid news machine and its phone-hacking scandals in the mould of bestselling Flat Earth News.