Hamish MacGibbon examines his family history after learning that his father was a spy for the Soviet Union during WWII.

In this book, James MacGibbon’s son Hamish tells the story of his parents, their interaction with the communist party and their flirtation with wartime espionage in post-war Britain. It is a unique portrait of two very ordinary people caught up in the extraordinary events of World War Two and the Cold War, brought to life by engaging prose and original MI5 records.

The MI5 had long suspected James of espionage and interrogated him at the war’s end. Without a confession, there was little the British secret intelligence services could do except place James and his family under close surveillance, the proof of which his children discovered shortly after his death. Hamish MacGibbon draws on a wealth of documents gleamed from official government archives, which shows how mail was regularly intercepted and private telephone calls recorded. The result is a fascinating exploration of how the war, espionage and a seemingly regular family depict the ordinary and the extraordinary interweaving.