Operation Garbo: The Personal Story of the Most Successful Spy of World War II (Dialogue Espionage Classics)

I enjoyed this book very much. The story of Juan Pujol Garcia is a fascinating tale of imagination, determination and ingenuity. A Spaniard who had never been to Britain used maps and travel guides to concoct stories to send to the Germans as intelligence reports. He eventually came to the attention of MI5 and they took him on to support him in continuing his activities which proved spectacularly successful. This book is highly recommended.

This book made me laugh out loud. What a fantastic story and you can see why Graham Greene borrowed the idea for our man in Havana which also made me laugh out loud but this is the true story.Truth is stranger than fiction - Venezuelan students in Aberdeen in the 1940's. I remember Aberdeen in the 1980s and you were more likely to see someone in full highland dress in Union Street than a foreign student.

A roller coaster of a spy story in breathtaking technicolour!

this book could have been a fascinating read however it was dull. It does take some sort of skill I suppose to make such an interesting life into a dull book but the author has succeeded wonderfully. I was going to read all of it to see if it improved however decided that life was too short to waste it on this so gave up after reading about 50%.

This started out fine. The initial chapters written by Garbo were interesting and easy to read. Then when you get to the chapters by Nigel West it was tough going. This part of the book was like a report containing word for word a number of the messages sent by Garbo back to his German paymasters. To be honest I got completely lost with who was who in the virtual spy ring setup to confuse the enemy. Was the information that Garbo sent back coming from real or imaginary people? Unfortunately it was only at the end of the Kindle version that each 'spy' was explained in detailed.

If you are interested in war and espionage related issues this is a really interesting book to read. A Spanish guy who won the Iron Cross and the OBE for his intelligence activities during the Second World War and became the most successful ever double agent working for the British.

An incredible insight into the detailed activities of a Spanish double agent who went to England to help the Allies defeat the Germans during the second world war, using a fictitious group of sub agents. Amazing true story.June Finnigan - writer

A superb book telling the full story of the spy who worked his magic for the British for almost all of WW2 and at the same time convinced the Germans that he was actually working for them. He succeeded in his work so well that not only did the British awarded him a medal but so did the Germans! An amazing story, especially so, I imagine, if you are a German.

I expected an awful lot more from this book. It is clear that Joan is an honourable man, the British Secret services a lot more clever than one would give them credit for ( you can see where James Bond came from, alright ) and certainly a lot better prepared than the Abwehr who seem in contrast to be a bunch of amateurs. Garbo's success lay more in the ineptness of the Nazis to assemble a half decent network of spies in England who could verify his contacts ( you can forget about Ken Follett, that would have been a work of genius for the Abwehr ). In fact, at the end, you end up having a certain sympathy for Pujol's Nazi handler, who again seems an honourable type, if a little too smitten with Hitler and Nazism. We learn that he took flight to a pueblo in the Sierra Guadarrama after the war but no more, I certainly would like to have seen what became of him. Certainly, Franco's spain was most welcoming to Nazi refugees so that issue didn't really exist. Nigel West got a lot of facts wrong, especially when it came to dealing with Spain, and Pujol's wife's disenchantment with living in England never got a mention, which was disappointing. Can't recommend this book, despite the clever cover.

Un titolo che parla di un episodio poco conosciuto della seconda guerra mondiale, una spy story con un eccezionale uomo della porta accanto per protagonista.

Not bad. Interesting subject for sure, but the writing is bland.

It sounded interesting though.

Después de ver el documental, me enganché a la historia de Garbo... increíble lo fácil que resulta conseguir un libro raro con Amazon!