Last night I watched the movie Operation Mincemeat on Netflix and I quite liked it and would recommend the movie. But before you take my recommendation know two things - I'm predisposed to like movies like this (I've rewatched Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy several times). Secondly, I've long had the book Operation Mincemeat on my Amazon Wish List.
The movie had a fantastic cast but one thing I need to confess to is how distracted I was by how much Matthew Macfadyen with a mustache reminded me of a young Peter Sellers. Watch the trailer and tell me you don't see the resemblance too.
The book is very good. Anything by Ben Macintyre is worth reading.
ReplyDeleteThere are so many epic espionage films and TV shows on now or in the pipeline. Coming soon is Joe and Anthony Russo's The Gray Man starring Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans based upon Mark Greaney's debut novel. Already here is The Ipcress File with newcomer Joe Cole, Mick Herron’s Slow Horses from the Slough House stables, The Courier about Greville Wynne played by Benedict Cumberbatch who looks astonishingly just like Wynne did in real life, Colin Firth in Operation Mincemeat, Olen Steinhauer’s All the Old Knives and let’s not forget Kaley Cuoco in the Flight Attendant.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, ignoring the fact based Operation Mincemeat and The Courier, there’s almost too much fictional espionage on the menu to cope with so why not try reading instead. If you liked Deighton, Herron or Wynne, we suggest a noir fact based espionage masterpiece could do the trick. Three compelling thrillers spring to mind. They are all down to earth, often curious real life Cold War novels you’ll never put down.
Try Bill Browder’s Red Notice, Bill Fairclough’s Beyond Enkription in The Burlington Files series and Ben Macintyre’s The Spy and the Traitor about KGB Colonel Oleg Gordievsky.
Talking of Col Oleg, he knew MI6’s Col Mac (aka Col Alan Pemberton in real life) who was Edward Burlington’s handler in The Burlington Files. Bill Fairclough (aka Edward Burlington) came across John le Carré (aka David Cornwell) long after the latter’s MI6 career ended thanks to Kim Philby. The novelist Graham Greene used to work in MI6 reporting to Philby and Bill Fairclough actually stayed in Hôtel Oloffson during a covert op in Haiti which was at the heart of Graham Greene’s spy novel The Comedians.