Ben Macintyre

Benedict Richard Pierce Macintyre (born 25 December 1963) is a British author, reviewer^[1] and columnist for The Times newspaper. His columns range from current affairs to historical controversies. He has written some 15 books, and received numerous awards for both fiction and non-fiction works.

Key Information

Ben Macintyre
Macintyre at the 2024 Chiswick Book Festival
Born	Benedict Richard Pierce MacIntyre 25 December 1963 (1963-12-25) (age 61) Oxford, Oxfordshire, England
Occupation	Columnist, author
Alma mater	St John's College, Cambridge
Spouse	Kate Muir (div.)
Children	3
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Macintyre was born on 25 December 1963, in Oxford, the elder son^[2] of Angus Donald Macintyre (d. 1994), a fellow and tutor in Modern History at Magdalen College, Oxford, and Joanna, daughter of Sir Richard Musgrave Harvey, 2nd Baronet and a descendant of Berkeley Paget.^[3][4] His paternal grandmother was a descendant of James Netterville, 7th Viscount Netterville.^[5] Angus Macintyre had been elected principal of Hertford College, Oxford before his death in a car accident, author of the first scholarly work on the Irish nationalist Daniel O'Connell, general editor of the Oxford Historical Monographs series from 1971 to 1979, editor of The English Historical Review from 1978 to 1986, and Chairman of the Governors of Magdalen College School from 1987 to 1990.

Macintyre was educated at Abingdon School and St John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated with a degree in history in 1985.^[6]

Macintyre is the author of a book on the gentleman criminal Adam Worth, The Napoleon of Crime: The Life and Times of Adam Worth, Master Thief.

He also wrote The Man Who Would Be King: The First American in Afghanistan, about Josiah Harlan. This was also published as Josiah the Great: The True Story of the Man who Would be King.^[7] Harlan is one of the candidates presumed to be the basis for Rudyard Kipling's short story The Man Who Would Be King.

He is the author of a book on Eddie Chapman, a double agent of Germany and Britain during the World War II, Agent Zigzag: The True Wartime Story of Eddie Chapman: Lover, Betrayer, Hero, Spy.

In 2008, Macintyre wrote an illustrated account of Ian Fleming, creator of the fictional spy James Bond, to accompany the For Your Eyes Only, Ian Fleming and James Bond exhibition at London's Imperial War Museum, which was part of the Fleming Centenary celebrations.^[8][9]

Macintyre's 2010 book Operation Mincemeat first brought Hester Leggatt's possible contributions to Operation Mincemeat to mainstream attention, though the book misspelled her name as "Leggett".^[10]

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2014.^[11]

Macintyre's 2020 book Agent Sonya: Moscow's Most Daring Wartime Spy, a biography of Soviet agent Ursula Kuczynski, was featured on BBC Radio 4 as a Book of the Week.^[12]

In 2022 his book Colditz: Prisoners of the Castle was released, a history of the German prison and its inhabitants, mostly British POWs. The book received generally favorable reviews.^[13]

In 2024, Viking published Macintyre's The Siege about the Iranian Embassy siege in London in 1980.^[14][15] It was also announced that the book will be adapted for television by the show-runner of Slow Horses.^[16]

Macintyre has three children and is divorced from the writer and documentary maker Kate Muir.^{[citation needed]}

Five of Macintyre's books have been made into documentaries for the BBC:

• Operation Mincemeat (2010),^[17]
• Double Agent: The Eddie Chapman Story (2011),^[18]
• Double Cross – The True Story of the D Day Spies (2012)^[19]
• Kim Philby: His Most Intimate Betrayal (2014).^[20]
• SAS: Rogue Warriors (2017).^[21]

In 2021, Operation Mincemeat, a cinematic adaptation of Macintyre's 2010's book of the same name, subtitled The True Spy Story that Changed the Course of World War II, premiered at Australia's British Film Festival, and was released to the public in 2022.

Rogue Heroes: The History of the SAS, Britain's Secret Special Forces Unit That Sabotaged the Nazis and Changed the Nature of War, was adapted in 2022 under the title SAS: Rogue Heroes and released on 30 October 2022.^[22][23]

On 8 December 2022, a six part series titled A Spy Among Friends premiered on the streaming service ITVX. It is an adaptation of Macintyre's book: A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal.^[24]

In April 2023 it was announced that the team behind A Spy Among Friends (actor Damian Lewis and director Alexander Cary) is developing further television dramas based on Macintyre books.^[25]

In 2007, Tom Hanks bought the rights to Macintyre's Agent Zigzag.^[26] The film has been in various stages of development since.^[27]

• 1998 Edgar Award shortlist for The Napoleon of Crime
• 1998 Macavity Award shortlist for The Napoleon of Crime
• 2007 Costa Book Awards, biography, shortlist for Agent Zigzag
• 2008 Galaxy British Book Awards, biography, shortlist for Agent Zigzag
• 2010 Galaxy British Book Awards, Popular Non-fiction, shortlist for Operation Mincemeat
• 2011 Duke of Westminster's Medal for Military Literature, shortlist for Operation Mincemeat
• 2012 Agatha Award, Non-fiction, shortlist for A Spy Among Friends
• 2013 Edgar Award shortlist for Double Cross
• 2014 Spear's Book Award, winner for A Spy Among Friends
• 2018 Baillie Gifford Prize, shortlist for The Spy and the Traitor^[28]

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (January 2017)

• Forgotten Fatherland: The Search for Elisabeth Nietzsche. New York 1992. ISBN 978-0-374-15759-3^[29]
• The Napoleon of Crime: The Life and Times of Adam Worth, Master Thief. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1997. ISBN 978-0-374-21899-7.
• A Foreign Field: A True Story of Love and Betrayal in the Great War. HarperCollins, 2001. ISBN 978-0-00-257122-7. (American edition: The Englishman's Daughter: A True Story of Love and Betrayal in World War One. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002. ISBN 978-0-374-12985-9.)
• The Man Who Would Be King: The First American in Afghanistan (Josiah Harlan). New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2004. ISBN 978-0-374-20178-4.^[30]
• Agent Zigzag: The True Wartime Story of Eddie Chapman: Lover, Traitor, Hero, Spy. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2007. ISBN 978-0-7475-8794-1.
• For Your Eyes Only: Ian Fleming and James Bond. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2008.
• The Last Word: Tales from the Tip of the Mother Tongue. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2009. ISBN 978-1-4088-0333-2.
• Operation Mincemeat: The True Spy Story that Changed the Course of World War II. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2010. ISBN 978-0-7475-9868-8.
• Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2012. ISBN 978-1-4088-1990-6.
• A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2014. ISBN 978-1408851722.

• Gladwell, Malcolm (28 July 2014). "A Critic at Large: Trust No One". The New Yorker. Vol. 90, no. 21. pp. 70–75. Retrieved 30 September 2014. Includes review of A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal.
• Fitzpatrick, Sheila (September 2014). "'One of us' : the spy who relished deception". Australian Book Review. 364: 27–28. Review of A Spy Among Friends.

• Rogue Heroes: The History of the SAS, Britain's Secret Special Forces Unit That Sabotaged the Nazis and Changed the Nature of War; McClelland & Stewart; 2017; 400pp; ISBN 978-0771060328
• The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War (Oleg Gordievsky); Viking, 2018, 352pp; ISBN 978-0241186657^[31]
• Agent Sonya: Lover, Mother, Soldier, Spy; Viking, 2020, 384pp; ISBN 978-0241408506^[32]
• Colditz: Prisoners of the Castle; Viking, 2022, 384pp; ISBN 978-0241408520
• The Siege: The Remarkable Story of the Greatest SAS Hostage Drama; Viking, 2024, 384pp; ISBN 978-0241675670
• The Faintest of Tickles - a new anthology of cricket writing with a Foreword by Daniel Norcross; Bolzwinick Books, 2025, 262pp; ISBN 979-8334014152

• List of Old Abingdonians
• SAS: Rogue Heroes
• A Spy Among Friends

• Official website
• List of articles by Macintyre
• "Ben Macintyre, columnist", is Macintyre's op-ed page at The Times.
• Ben Macintyre at the Muck Rack journalist directory