Ben Macintyre

We are thrilled to welcome author, historian and columnist Ben Macintyre back to Bath to introduce his latest gripping true spy story, The Spy and the Traitor.

On a warm July evening in 1985, a middle-aged man stood on the pavement of a busy avenue in the heart of Moscow, holding a plastic carrier bag. In his grey suit and tie, he looked like any other Soviet citizen. The bag alone was mildly conspicuous, printed with the red logo of Safeway, the British supermarket.  The man was a spy. A senior KGB officer, for more than a decade he had supplied his British spymasters with a stream of priceless secrets from deep within the Soviet intelligence machine. No spy had done more to damage the KGB.  The Safeway bag was a signal: to activate his escape plan to be smuggled out of Soviet Russia.  So began one of the boldest and most extraordinary episodes in the history of spying.

Join us for an evening that offers a glimpse of hidden history full of intrigue, subterfuge and suspense.