Game of Spies cover art

Game of Spies

The Secret Agent, the Traitor and the Nazi, Bordeaux 1942-1944

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Game of Spies

By: Paddy Ashdown
Narrated by: Paddy Ashdown
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About this listen

Spies, bed-hopping, treachery and executions – this story of espionage in wartime Bordeaux is told for the first time.

Game of Spies uncovers a lethal spy triangle at work during the Second World War. The story centres on three men – on British, one French and one German – and the duels they fought out in an atmosphere of collaboration, betrayal and assassination, in which comrades sold fellow comrades, Allied agents and downed pilots to the Germans, as casually as they would a bottle of wine.

In this thrilling history of how ordinary, untrained people in occupied Europe faced the great questions of life, death and survival, Paddy Ashdown tells a fast-paced tale of SOE, betrayal and bloodshed in the city labelled ‘la plus belle collaboratrice’ in the whole of France.

©2016 Paddy Ashdown (P)2016 HarperCollins Publishers Limited Europe France Great Britain Military Military & War World War II War England Espionage Imperialism Royalty

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Critic reviews

‘Fascinating and fast moving’ Literary Review
All stars
Most relevant  
If you are interested in the Resistance in France, I would say this book is a “must”. It follows three interconnected yet hostile adversaries in a deadly game of cat and mouse, with uniquely the only personal account of a Gestapo officer almost on a day by day basis during the occupation of Bordeaux. The truth is fascinating and often bizarre. For example the Gestapo trying to set up their own resistance organization! We’ll worth the read or the listen.

Fascinating generally little known history of the cat and mouse game between, the resistance, the Gestapo and SOE

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I’m so glad to have listened to this audiobook. I was delighted to find it was Passy read his tale, making it all the more enjoyable.
This record, clearly excellently researched, leaves is with a most remarkable record of great value.
Thank you very much for all involved in this erstwhile venture!

Excellent

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Faultless. If you like ww2 audiobook stories then this is a must-have. Definitely in my top 5 greatest audiobook collection.

A most excellent presentation. Well-written and beautifully narrated.

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More of a history book that in it self is a fascinating subject, but unfortunately came across as a bit of a monologue lacking the highs and lows of the drama of the circumstances with a lot of detail and numerous characters but no real character development for the listener to latch on to. Nonetheless a very worthy subject with incredible research as a basis of the story.

Very detailed

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This does not have the suspense of a Ben Macintyre and I wonder if that is partly down to Paddy Ashdowns undramatic delivery. It in no way detracted for me the drama of this brutal strory and PA read it very well indeed. I wonder if thought given to Toby Longworth or James Lailie if it may have been more gripping than it was. Dunno,

Fantastic characters and brilliant research. I love the way during the war, in the book, how human the main characters were and how life and death came and went without drama. The seriousness of the events in the moment really transferred very well here. Also the epilogue was so sad and awful to listen to. How the agents discussed did not really change any part of teh war is heartbreaking.

I am used to more of a dramatic narration, more measured and experienced, so I found Game of Spies very occaisionally faded into my background, but PA;s commitment and connection to his book makes up for all that. I am pleased that I heard him read it and that it was different. Different is good.

I learnt a lot. Thank you.

Surprising and very well read.

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Meticulously researched and interesting main characters, but I got the impression the writer really tried to spin it out for as long as possible; it starts brilliantly but the pace kind of drops off after a while. There were so many superfluous characters who played minor roles it was difficult to keep track - and at the end when he explained what became of them all after the war I'd forgotten who most of them were and what they'd done.

The amount of detail reflects the huge amount of research which was obviously done for this book, but I would have preferred a shorter version.

Brilliantly researched, possibly a bit too much....

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