About this title: The first full biography of Anthony Blunt by a brilliant new biographer. Anthony Blunt, aesthete, communist, homosexual, M15 agent and Soviet mole, was Surveyor of the King's Pictures and Director of the Courtauld Institute. Betrayed in 1963, he voted for Margaret Thatcher in 1979. Later that year, she was to expose his treachery and strip him of his knighthood. While the other Cambridge spies (Philby, Burgess and Maclean) subordinated their lives and careers to espionage, Blunt had a separate passionate existence. His reputation as an art historian was second to none: he made an enormous ...
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Description: Very Good. Former Library book. Great condition for a used book! Minimal wear. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. 2002-Hardcover---may contain minor shelf-wear-Used-Good-Hall Street Books proudly ships from Brooklyn, NY. All orders are processed and shipped within 24 hours, M-F. 100% money back No-Worry guarantee with expedited delivery and delivery confirmation available. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Picador
Date Published: 2003-03-19
ISBN-13:9780312421465ISBN:031242146X
Description: Like New. A great book in like new condition! FREE TRACKING in US and email to you when shipped. Inquires welcomed and we want your complete satisfaction! read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9780374105310ISBN:0374105316
Description: Good in Very good jacket. First Edition. Good hardcover with very good DJ in new Brodart jacket. Ex-lib with some of the expected maerks but otherwise unmarked, bright and clean with square and tight binding. Enjoy reading with a real book in your hands. read more
Edition: First edition. First American edition.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9780374105310ISBN:0374105316
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Ex-library. Minimal library markings. Binding strong & tight, pages bright, clean. Text unmarked. Dj protected by mylar. No dog ears. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 592 p. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: General/trade. read more
Edition: 1st American edition (stated)
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, NY
Date Published: 2001
Description: 4to, cloth-backed boards, 590p, index. Remainder strike top edge. A few pages bumped top corner, else very fine, in excellent, priced dust jacket. No chips, no tears. Solid, sound text block has no writing, no marginalia, no highlighting, no bookplates, etc.; no remainder marks, NOT ex-library; NOT BC ed. Biography of the famous British spy. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Pan Books
Date Published: 2002-10-11
ISBN-13:9780330367660ISBN:0330367668
Description: Like New. A great book in like new condition. New book-but has a bent back corner. We provide USPS confirmmation tracking and email when we ship. We want your complete satisfaction. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Pan Books
Date Published: 2002-10-11
ISBN-13:9780330367660ISBN:0330367668
Description: Like New. A great book in like new condition. Has shelf wear on cover and corners. We provide USPS confirmmation tracking and email when we ship. We want your complete satisfaction. read more
Description: Fine. AS NEW BOOK WITH MISSING TITLE PAGE-COVER WITH LIGHT DAMAGE-COMPLETELY UNREAD-EXCELLENT CONDITION-READ ONCE CAREFULLY-TRUSTED DEVON (UK) BASED SELLER-IN STOCK-SENT WITHIN 1 WORKING DAY-AVAILABLE BY EMAIL FOR QUERIES-NO QUIBBLE REFUND IF NOT COMPLETELY SATISFIED- read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Pan Books
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9780330367660ISBN:0330367668
Description: Good. **SHIPPED FROM UK** We believe you will be completely satisfied with our quick and reliable service. All orders are dispatched as swiftly as possible! Buy with confidence! read more
Edition: First edition. First Picador edition.
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Picador USA
Date Published: 2003
ISBN-13:9780312421465ISBN:031242146X
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 608 p. Contains: Illustrations. As always, Hawkins Mill books guarantees safe and prompt transactions. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Macmillan
Date Published: 2001
ISBN-13:9780333633502ISBN:0333633504
Description: Good. **SHIPPED FROM UK** We believe you will be completely satisfied with our quick and reliable service. All orders are dispatched as swiftly as possible! Buy with confidence! read more
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9780374105310ISBN:0374105316
Description: Fine in Very Good dust jacket. 0374105316. First American edition hard cover and dust jacket. One small tear at top of spine. Book is unread. No marks. Mylar cover. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Pan Books
Date Published: 2002-10-11
ISBN-13:9780330367660ISBN:0330367668
Description: New. A great book in new condition. We provide USPS confirmation tracking and email when we ship. We want your complete satisfaction. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Picador
Date Published: 2003-03-19
ISBN-13:9780312421465ISBN:031242146X
Description: New. COLLECTIBLE. STATED FIRST EDITION FEBRUARY 2003. FIRST PRINTING WITH FULL 10 DIGIT NUMBER LINE. New soft cover from bookstore. Nice tight, clean, bright book. A publishers mark and no other marks. Packaged carefully and sent promptly with tracking number in US. Gift Messaging available. Satisfaction guaranteed. read more
""Anglican parishes abroad are often disconcertingly large: when the Bishop of Gibraltar described the extent of his diocese to Pope Pius VI, His Holiness observed, 'Then I'm a parishioner.'"
Public school sex education in the 1920s: "You might find some white matter exuding from your private parts. Don't worry about it. It's only a sort of disease like measles."
Blunt review: "Mr Wilneski has clearly attempted the impossible. But he need not have failed so grossly."
Burgess on Blunt: "The trouble with you, Anthony, is that you want to have your cake and eat it and give the impression that you're feeding it to the poor."
Blunt's secret mission to Germany: "The Duke of Brunswick would open a drawer and sigh, 'Oh no, not another golden fleece...'"
Blunt on women: "Women had very little influence on art. And the influence that they did have was perfectly wretched."
A poor old chap: "...and Hugh Benham, an old Harrovian from a rich East Anglian family who had a disfiguring skin disease and spent much of his time in his pyjamas. (Benham eventually died in Tangier, apparently so drunk he fell out of a hotel bedroom.)"
"Those (guardsmen) who liked to make themselves 'available' were to be found in certain pubs around Buckingham Palace and the West End, including the Bag o' Nails near the Wellington Barracks." NB: We used to go to the Bag o' Nails after work! It was full of civil servants in those days.
Blunt on holiday 1: "He had driven the battered old Railton, given to him by Burgess's old boyfriend Peter Pollock, to Rome with the handbrake on. He had been so exasperated by its overheating that he abandoned it on the via del Corso"
Blunt on holiday 2: "Within a few hours of their meeting, Blunt asked King, who was himself homosexual, about 'queer' life in Athens. Was it easy to find sex? What was the going rate? His specification was 'big, butch, good teeth'. Rather embarrassingly - 'I was surprised by his lack of discretion' - King found him a young man, discovering in the process that picking up a young man in Athens was 'far easier than finding a taxi'. Afterwards Blunt seemed happy and relaxed. 'Oh, I am grateful to you. That was just what I needed. I feel much, much better now.' That night King was woken by Blunt screaming. He had had a nightmare.""
"Most people may well be able to associate with multiple lives rather than one life when considering an autobiography, or when someone chooses to write a biography of them, but it is doubtful that many such lives will be quite so diverse as those of Sir Anthony Blunt.
Miranda Carter captures them all perfectly from Cambridge student, through not-so-good military man, to MI5 representative, to spy for the Russians, to art historian, to art expert, to curator of the Queen's pictures, to Knighthood. How did Sir Anthony do it? He must have been a marvel to comparmentalise the treachery with his honest working life. He is quoted as saying that it was due to plenty of "whisky" and "work, work, work".
He was much disliked by some, much loved by others and many of those in the latter category stuck with him once he had been revealed as a spy, which in itself, arguably, took too long considering that he was suspected and interviewed some 20 years or more before he was outed.
A warts and all bigraphy, not surprisingly, that gets better as it progresses. Worth a read for those with a spying bent and also for those Poussain aficiandos!"
"Hmm hmmm hhmmmmm, very odd book. Completely obsessive details of everyone this man attended a party with, kind of reminded me of college who went to what party culture except I never cared then and these guys care up until the day they die and it makes it so boring! Even if the people he was going to parties with were famous poets, which I can't say that half the people I went to college with even read a poem unless forced. I honestly did not know who he was before reading the book, kind of thought he was someone interesting and distinguished but this makes being a success at Cambridge or in the Art world seem insanely dull and easy to do. Did teach me a lot about British Bloomsbery movement and little bit Spanish Civil War. And also......being a spy during WWII way way more simple and boring than you would think, spying was SO easy before the computer tech age.
Well written however, author is true Anthony Blunt tradition is meticulous and brings together a plethora of random facts into clear plots and themes. However, much of what she has to go on is opinion or hearsay so hard to take as fact which makes everything about this man go up to question. Which may be the point, we will never know who Anthony Blunt is."
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