Zigzag, Nicholas Booth
Zigzag, Nicholas Booth
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Zigzag
The Incredible Wartime Exploits of Double Agent Eddie Chapman

Author: Nicholas Booth

Narrator: Roger Davis

Unabridged: 15 hr 17 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 04/25/2017


Synopsis

The most remarkable double agent of World War II, Eddie Chapman was witty, handsome, and charming. Too bad he was also a con man, womanizer, and safe-cracker. To the British, though, he was known as ZigZag, one of MI5's most valuable agents. To the Abwehr—German military intelligence—he was known as Fritzchen (Little Fritz), and was believed to be one of their most valued and trusted spies. For three long years, Eddie played this dangerous double game, daily risking life and limb to help the Allies win the war. He was so charming that his German handler, Baron Stefan von Gröning, thought of Fritzchen as the son he never had. The Germans even awarded him the Iron Cross for spying for the Reich! They sent him to Britain, with the mission to blow up the De Havilland aircraft factory. How he and MI5 convinced the Germans that he had accomplished his mission stands as one of history's greatest acts of counterintelligence.

Until now, Eddie Chapman’s extraordinary double life has never been told, thwarted by the Official Secrets Act. Now all the evidence—including Eddie's MI5 file—has finally been released, paving the way for Nicholas Booth's enthralling account of Eddie's long and extraordinary life.

About Nicholas Booth

Nicholas Booth, a writer and broadcaster, is the author of The Thieves of Threadneedle Street and Zigzag: The Incredible Wartime Exploits of Double Agent Eddie Chapman. A former newspaper journalist, editorial director, and mobile publisher, he lives in Cheshire, England, with his wife.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Derek on March 26, 2018

There were parts of this story I had come across before, such as the amazing fake sabotage of an aircraft factory, but Nicholas Booth does an excellent and readable job of stringing the whole narrative together. He brings out the isolation of a double agent's life mirrored in the contradictions of C......more

Goodreads review by Gerald on January 01, 2010

Eddie Chapman, the subject of Nicholas Booth's engrossing biography, was essentially a man of his time and generation. From a modest background in Sunderland, his craving for excitement led him to London where he mixed with criminals as a safe-cracker, to Jersey where he landed in prison, and to occ......more

Goodreads review by Jill on September 27, 2020

This is the story of Eddie Chapman, most notorious double agent for Britain during WWII. A safecracker, thief, womanizer and all-around scoundrel. While being imprisoned in a Jersey Island jail in the English Channel, the Germans take over the island. They learn of Eddie’s talent as a safecracker an......more

Goodreads review by David on December 30, 2017

The story of Eddie Chapman, a small time English thief who becomes a Nazi spy and later a double agent for MI5. Like its subject, the book is haphazard and disorganized. It is never clear if Chapman was a patriot or a traitor. It is an interesting story but it does not flow as well as I prefer.......more

Goodreads review by Janell on June 20, 2019

I give this a solid 3.5 stars. It was an interesting, albeit, information-packed book about how a spy -a double agent at that- worked and lived, schemed and planned, in wartime Europe. There was so much detail, however, that by the very end, I found myself skimming through the epilogue as I had no n......more