Robin Bruce Lockhart (1920–2008)

Wow! I read a lot of spie lives, but this one takes the cake. Obviously, herein lies the inspiration for James Bond, but even with Bond one had to leave behing the Reilly accomplishments no one would believe. My only complaint is the final chapter on the spy's ultimate demise draws together several sources in lengthy quotes without any basic typographical help to keep track of when the author is speaking or quoting other books.

While certainly entertaining, the historical value is dubious. Too much is glided over, and there are glitches in the history. If as much of the record was destroyed as we are led to believe, much of the reconstruction here is fabulous, to use one form of the word.

Robin Bruce Lockhart is the son of Sir Robert Hamilton Bruce Lockhart, who was acting General Consul in Moscow in 1917 (and also served as a secret agent) when the Bolsheviks overthrew the government in Russia; then later arrested by the secret police there for purportedly being involved with a plot to assassinate Lenin. He knew Sidney Reilly, the subject of this book, and passed along several stories to his son, who compiled them in this book. There are stories from others about Reilly here show more as well, and Robin Bruce Lockhart, the author, had actually met the enigmatic Reilly as a child. The book covers Reilly's life & career, then moves along to examine different conclusions as to whether Reilly actually died in 1925 (when he'd gone back to Russia) or whether he remained a prisoner, escaped, or whatever.

I first became aware of Sidney Reilly when, in the 1980s, PBS first broadcast that phenomenal series "Reilly: Ace of Spies." I watched every episode without fail. Lockhart's book was the basis of that series. The book was really interesting, and it was an intriguing look at some of the inner workings of spycraft & espionage from the British, as well as that of the Germans & then the Russians and Bolsheviks. I have 2 issues with this book. First: it does tend to read like a group of stories passed down and then transcribed onto paper. Second: there is absolutely no documentation of sources anywhere. The historian in me (my college majors) always views undocumented work etc. with a bit of skepticism, especially in a work that is definitely historical in nature.

Overall, though, it was very interesting and whetted my appetite enough to compile a list of other publications that deal with the same subject matter in Lockhart's book. I'd recommend it to people who are interested in real-life British spies, or in the Bolshevik takeover of Russia, in the machinations by the CHEKA in order to maintain Bolshevik rule, or to anyone who might wish to read an interesting biography.

I've also just bought the entire PBS series to watch once more -- Sam Neill in his younger days...ah. show less

This biography of St. Bruno inflamed my love of the eremitic life and the Carthusian path in that life. Full accounting, as far as what is available currently in accessible volumes. Pope JPII's letter to the Carthusians on 900th anniversary and good bibliography among the appendixes.