Peter Day

Una apasionante investigación sobre el decisivo apoyo de la inteligencia británica al ascenso al poder del general Franco.Los amigos de Franco cuenta la poco conocida historia de cómo el MI6 ayudó a orquestar el golpe que llevo al general Franco al poder. En este revelador libro, explorando archivos hasta hace poco clasificados, Peter Day detalla los sobornos, las conspiraciones y los dilemas morales ocultos tras una de las acciones mas turbias emprendidas por el Gobierno britanico en aras de sus intereses. Asimismo, Day relata la historia, aun mas importante, de como los agentes britanicos evitaron que el regimen de Franco se uniera a su aliado ideologico aleman y mantuviera una neutralidad precaria con consecuencias ineditas para el curso de esta guerra.

Una Kroll was eleven when she first met her father. They stopped for lunch on the way from Brighton to London and he took her outside to play with the innkeepers Angora rabbit. In that pub garden this stranger uttered words that sent a chill through her heart, he would not be coming home. There was another woman. Scarcely comprehending, she buried her face in the white rabbits fur and refused to cry. The lonely little girl already knew how to hide her tears and she had invented a childish fantasy about her absent father to fend off unsympathetic classmates. He was an aviator and explorer who had gone missing in the desert, she told them.This was less extraordinary than the truth. Only years later did she discover that George Hill, her father, was a British spy who had befriended Trotsky at the time of the Russian Revolution. He had smuggled the Romanian crown jewels out of the Soviet Union and was involved in a doomed attempt to rescue the Tsar. During the Second World War he acted as the link between Churchills Special Operations Executive and Stalins secret service, the NKVD.Unas mother, Hilda Pediani, had been one of his agents and one of many lovers. He married her so that Una would be legitimate, but took no part in the childs upbringing. It was a rare sympathetic act by a man who was capable of great bravery but little compassion.

Klop Ustinov was Britains most ingenious secret agent, but he wasnt authorised to kill. Instead, he was authorised to tell tall tales, bemusing and beguiling his enemies into revealing their deepest, darkest secrets. From the Russian Revolution to the Cold War, he bluffed and tricked his way into the confidence of everyone from Soviet commissars to Gestapo Gruppenfuhrer. In Klop: Britains Most Ingenious Secret Agent, journalist Peter Day brings to life a man descended from Russian aristocrats and Ethiopian princesses but who fancied himself the perfect Englishman. His codename was U35 but his better-known nickname Klop meant bedbug, a name given to him by a very understanding wife on account of his extraordinary capacity to hop from one womans bed to another in the service of the King. Frequenting the social gatherings of Europe in the guise of innocent bon viveur, he displayed a showmans talent for entertaining (a trait his son, the actor Peter Ustinov, undoubtedly inherited), holding a captive audience and all the while scavenging secrets from his unsuspecting companions. Klop was masterful at gathering truth by telling a story; this is his.

Published to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the Falangist uprising in July 2011, Francos Friends tells the little-known true story of how MI6 orchestrated the coup that brought General Franco to power in Spain in 1936, leading to the Spanish civil war and 40 years of right-wing dictatorship. It has long been known that a British plane took Franco from the Canaries to Morocco at the start of the coup and that Major Hugh Pollard travelled on the plane from London, masquerading as a tourist and accompanied by two attractive blondes to add to the deception that this was just a pleasure trip. What is not known is the importance of his role and the extent of the involvement of the British intelligence services. Francos Friends shows that Pollard was a lifelong member of MI6 and discloses a list of Britons who helped engineer Francos coup that reads like a whos who of British intelligence (including james Bond creator, Ian Fleming). The book shows that MI6 continued working in Spain through to the Second World War, putting together behind-the-scenes deals and ensuring that the UKs interests were maintained. Crucially, MI6 even financed bribes paid to the Spanish generals by the British naval attache in Madrid to keep Spain neutral, thus reaping the benefits for Britain in 1939-45. Francos Friends , based on previously unknown material from the National Archives, Imperial War Museum, the British Library and private archives, is one of the great previously untold stories of the Second World War, revealing how Britain made a dubious but difficult moral choice that would have repercussions on the outcome of the Second World War.

Klop Ustinov was Britains most ingenious spy - but he was never licensed to kill. Instead, he was authorised to bemuse and beguile his enemies into revealing their deepest, darkest secrets. From the Russian Revolution to the Cold War, he bluffed and tricked his way into the confidence of everyone from Soviet commissars to Gestapo Gruppenfuhrer. Although his official codename was U35, he was better known as Klop, meaning Bedbug - a name given to him by a very understanding wife on account of his extraordinary capacity to hop from one womans bed to another in the Kings service. Frequenting the social gatherings of Europe under the guise of innocent bon viveur, he displayed a showmans talent for entertaining (a trait his son, the actor Peter Ustinov, undoubtedly inherited) and captivated unsuspecting audiences while scavenging their secrets. Using exciting anecdotes and first-hand accounts, Peter Day explores the fascinating life of one of espionages most inventive and memorable characters. The Bedbug was a master of uncovering the truth through telling tales; now his own tale can be told.