An engaging book on a tantalising and ultimately tragic subject, If it starts as a study of friendship, it ends as an indictment

Philip Hensher, Spectator

No one writes about deceit and subterfuge so dramatically, authoritatively or perceptively. To read A Spy Among Friends is a bit like climbing aboard a runaway train in terms of speed and excitement – except that Macintyre knows exactly where he is going and is in total control of his material

Daily Mail, Books of the Week

It reads like fiction, which is testament to the extraordinary power of the story itself but also to the skills of the storyteller … at least as compelling as any of the great fictionalised accounts of Britain's greatest traitor and one of the best real-life spy stories one is ever likely to read *****

Daily Express

Illuminating, gripping and moving … What Macintyre reveals – but not too quickly – is the extent to which those who confided in him, as friends or colleagues or both, were made unwitting accessories to treason

Evening Standard

Thrilling ... An extraordinary book ... I'm not a lover of spy novels, yet I adored this book. Fictional spies never seem believable to me; novels are populated by stereotypes devoid of nuances that define the individual. That's not the case here. Macintyre's strength is his capacity for intimacy, the very thing Philby, Elliott and Angleton lacked … Just about perfect

The Times Book of the Week

Whereas Milne thinks his friend betrayed his country because he genuinely believed in communism, Macintyre's explanation is more intriguing and more convincing

Sunday Times