Agent Sonya by Peter Kreeft

The incredible story behind the greatest female spy in history from one of Britain's most acclaimed historians. In the quiet Cotswolds village of Great Rollright in 1944, a thin, and unusually elegant, housewife emerged from her cottage to go on her usual bike ride. A devoted mother-of-three, attentive wife and friendly neighbour, Sonya Burton seemed to epitomise rural British domesticity. However, rather than pedalling towards the shops with her ration book, Sonya was heading for the Oxfordshire countryside to gather scientific secrets from a nuclear physicist. Secrets that would enable the Soviet Union to build the atomic bomb. Far from an obedient homemaker, Sonya Burton was a dedicated communist, a decorated colonel and a veteran spy who risked her life to keep the Soviet Union in the nuclear arms race. In Mrs Burton, Ben Macintyre reveals the astonishing story behind the most important female spy in history.

I somewhat blindly picked this book up after reading Operation Mincemeat by Ben Macintyre. Though it was quite interesting, the subject, Ursula Kaczynski codenamed ‘Sonya', covered so much of the WWII-era Europe that I struggled to keep track of it all. To her neighbors, Ursula seemed like a typical housewife. In actuality, she was an intelligence officer working for the Soviet Union. Though several agencies went after her, ultimately, it was her gentle appearance that kept her from danger. That's not to say there were never any close calls. Her career as a spy and her life in general are what the book explores in detail. Listening to the first few chapters, I honestly didn't know what I was getting myself into given the way the atmosphere was being built. Once Ursula's story found its footing I was more interested, though I still found the (written) narration chaotic. I didn't get as much out of it as I'd hoped because of this.

The captivating story of Ursula Kuczynski.

The undercover agent who travelled the world with kids in tow, fooled MI5 and conveyed atomic confidential information to the USSR. It's an appealing story, well suited to Ben Macintyre, the acclaimed author of fast-paced books about mid-century spies.