The CIA Book Club: The Best-Kept Secret of the Cold War

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This is the astonishing story of the ten million books that US intelligence smuggled across the Iron Curtain during the Cold War.
From copies of Orwell to Agatha Christie, the Western effort was to undermine the censorship of the Soviet bloc, offer different visions of thought and culture to the people, and build relationships with real readers in the East.

Historian Charlie English follows the characters of the era, with Bucharest-born George Minden at the narratives heart. Tasked with masterminding the effort, Minden understood both sides of the story: he was opposed to the intellectual straightjacket created by the communist system, but he also resented the Americans patronising tone the people werent fooled by what their puppet governments were saying, but they did need culture, diversity of thought, entertainment, art, reassurance and solidarity. This is how the perilous mission to bring books as beacons of hope played out, told in riveting detail.

Reviews

PRAISE FOR THE BOOK SMUGGLERS OF TIMBUKTU

An exemplary work of investigative journalism that is also a wonderfully colourful book of history and travel
William Dalrymple, Observer, Books of the Year

This spellbinding record of Timbuktus intellectual heritage blends accounts of European explorers to the ancient city with contemporary reportage
New Yorker

A piece of postmodern historiography of quite extraordinary sophistication and ingenuity [written with] exceptional delicacy and restraint
TLS

Part reportage, part history, part romance and wholly gripping a riveting read
Sunday Times

Author Bio

Charlie English is the former head of international news at the Guardian. A fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, he is the author of The Snow Tourist and the widely acclaimed The Book Smugglers of Timbuktu. He lives in London.