A Very British Ending

This is one of the BEST espionage novels I've read in quite some time. From start to finish - roughly spanning the years 1947 to 1995 - it captured my interest and held me in its grip. William Catesby - a polyglot and university graduate with liberal leanings, his mentor at MI 6 (the Secret Intellig......more

Really enjoyed this. Edward Wilson obviously has a comprehensive understanding of 20th century history: World War 2, the Popular Unity government and Pinochet's coup in Chile, the overthrow of the Whitlam government in Australia, the Cold War, the CIA's involvement in moving Nazi officers to safety......more

Edward Wilson’s tale of collaboration and treachery among the British, American, and Russian intelligence services spans a series of five novels. A Very British Ending is, fittingly, the fifth. Though a large cast of characters comes into play in the series, including many prominent historical figur......more

Very, very readable - I hardly put it down before finishing it. Like all the Catesby series it interweaves fact and fiction, using real characters, in this instance Harold Wilson particularly, as the centrepiece around which William Catesby, Henry Bone and others move. The story moves from the immed......more

Edward Wilson's espionage novel is a hybrid of fact and fiction, story telling and political polemic. The book is ambitious, but execution falls short. The characters are sharply divided between the good (those who share the author's Corbynista opinions) and bad (Americans and the British upper class......more