Adventures of a British Master Spy: The Memoirs of Sidney Reilly (Dialogue Espionage Classics)

This is a good book. Sidney Reilly was the real James Bond. Unfortunately much of this story is written from notes and the memory of his widow. The true story may never be told. Great book for those students of intelligence officers and operations.

Watched the tv series and wanted to read the writings if Reilly and his wife. Very visceral experience. I recommend it.

Bottom Line First:Adventures of a British Master Spy: The Memoirs of Sidney Reilly is Sidney Reilly’s and at least one of his wives tell their version of his last days alive and in freedom. At least part of the story is verified by a third co-author a fellow member of the British espionage system. How much of what is told here is truth and how much is in the service of Mr. Reilly’s known and unknown motives is what makes this book a tricky read. I can recommend this book. If you know about Sidney his truth is elusive. His propaganda is not. He is right in his disgust with the Russian Revolutionary government. He is right to work for its violent end. What keeps this from being a better read is the portions written by his wife. Nellie Burton. The portions taken from his notes and from the ends note of Royal Air Force Captain Hill are relatively straight forward.Sidney Reilly, often listed as the ‘Ace of Spies’ was one of several people listed by Ian Flemming as inspirations for James Bond. Sidney was Russian born who passed himself off as Irish. He is created as being a creator of the modern spy, that is a more or less free agent taking work where and whit whomever would offer. There is reason to believe he was capable of murder to further his personal goals and some of the possible activities he performed as a secret operative may not have been in the best interests of America or his more typical employer, the British.There are several biographies on this man and at least one BBC Television miniseries. Having read and seen, I am only certain that the real story is not known. The embellishments are romantic and intriguing.The event of this memoire stretch from roughly his possible involvement in an effort to assonate Lenin to his more probable involvement in a complex plot to trap and or kill the Soviet Politburo. There is some independent verification for his efforts in these directions. His narrative reads as so complex and involving so many people it is most believable when he describes how much time he spent avoiding the NKVD (later the KGB). That many people and that much money with the stakes that high and much of his organization was vulnerable if not penetrated from the start. His memoires end as he is drawn back into the Soviet Union for purposes unclear and at the behest of people he should not have creditied. The real Sidney Reily is believed to have been lured into the Soviet Union, captured and killed. He would also receive a medal for services rendered to British Intelligence. It is at this point that his last wife Nellie Burton resumes the story taking up from where they had met not long before the events already narrated. We see Sidney as she would wish us to see him and experience her terror as she is drawn into first the edges and then too close to the center of Soviet intrigues against any they believed to be a threat.The book ends with a field report by Captain Hill, explaining what he knew of Reilly’s possible operations and of his problems operating an intelligence concern inside of what had quickly moved from being an allied nation to a hostile one.The stark facts of these memoirs may be compelling enough for many readers. These are the thoughts and impressions of people with firsthand knowledge of just how bad Revolutionary Russia was. The quality of the writing drags down what should be a more effective and effecting story.