“Agent Zigzag” by Ben Macintyre – Playing Both Sides of the Fence

The Second World War has given rise to countless tales of heroism that will hopefully be carried on for centuries and centuries to come. As a matter of fact, there are so many of them that one would be hard-pressed to discover them all in one lifetime.

At this point, those who studied the war know that a huge part of it was not fought with guns, but with information and espionage tactics.

In many situations, one piece of data could turn the tides of a coming battle or save hundreds, if not thousands of human lives. Eddie Chapman is without a doubt one of the most famous double agents to have ever lived, and though he was not exactly James Bond, he put is life at risk innumerable times to accomplish his missions.

Agent Zigzag by Ben Macintyre is basically Chapman’s biography, but what sets it apart from the ones written before it is the fact that a number of files in regards to Chapman’s time as a secret agent were recently declassified. In other words, this is truest picture we have come to elaborate of Chapman’s life.

Though Agent Zigzag is a biography that doesn’t really pretend to be anything else, the nature of Chapman’s life makes it read like some kind of espionage novel. You will find all the elements you would expect in such a plot, including romance, espionage gadgets, loyalty and of course, betrayal.

Just to give you an idea of how it all got started for Chapman, he was con-man who got released from a British prison in 1940. Without a second thought, he joined up with the Germans who extensively trained him in all of their tactics. His first mission came in December 1942 when he was tasked with sabotaging an aircraft factory.

After landing on British soil, however, he surrendered and the MI5 hired him as a double agent. In other words, from that point on, Chapman was tasked with feeding the Nazis with misinformation while providing the real thing to the British.

Thankfully, the book doesn’t exclusively look into Chapman’s life and nothing else; rather, it aims to explore the world of WWII espionage through new information, and rest assured, it does so successfully.

The genuine and unaltered look we are given at the way in which Chapman operated between the Third Reich and MI5 can be taken as a literal guide on how spying was, and perhaps still is actually conducted.

On the whole, it makes for a very enthralling biography, especially when you take into consideration that in the end, Chapman’s motives for doing what he did remain unknown, and what’s more, it was never discovered whose side Chapman was really on: the British, the Germans, or his himself?

If you are interested in learning about Chapman, his role during the war and about espionage during that time in general, then I wholeheartedly recommend you check out Agent Zigzag.

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Ben Macintyre Personal site Ben Macintyre is a British author, columnist and historian who is currently also a writer for The Times newspaper. He touches on all topics from current affairs in the world of politics to controversies in our history, and he is the author of numerous novels, including The Napoleon of Crime and The Man Who Would be King.