Phillip Knightley
The Socialist at Centre-Half
Comrade Jim: The Spy Who Played for Spartak
By Jim Riordan
Fourth Estate 272pp £14.99 order from our bookshop
This charming book encompasses all those elements that help make a modern bestseller – espionage, treachery, class warfare, politics, celebrity, drink, nostalgia and … football.
Jim Riordan is Professor Emeritus in Russian Studies at the University of Surrey. He is also a novelist, a writer of children’s books, a translator, and a graduate of the Higher Party School in Moscow, where the Soviet authorities trained carefully selected Communists for their mission to take over the world.
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