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Ben Macintyre's Top Book Recommendations

Want to know what books Ben Macintyre recommends? We've researched interviews, social media posts, podcasts, and articles to build a comprehensive list of Ben Macintyre's favorite book recommendations of all time. At Shortform, we know books. Our book guides are the best in the world. Learn why.

The Riddle of the Sands book cover1

The Riddle of the Sands

Erskine Childers

3.6
Languishing one summer at the Foreign Office in London, Carruthers is rescued by an unexpected invitation to join Arthur Davies and the Dulcibella in the Baltic. A grouse-shooting party or a weekend at Cowes would have been more Carruther’s style. More disconcerting still, soon after his arrival it emerges that Davies needs his assistance, not on a yachting holiday, but in a sport of amateur spyin
Ben Macintyre portraitKeith Jeffery portraitStephen Evans portrait Recommended by Ben Macintyre, Keith Jeffery, and Stephen Evans.
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Ben Macintyre

It’s a ripping yarn, it’s just so exciting. I first read it when I was about ten, and I’ve re-read it periodically since and it combines two of the things that I love most. [source]

Keith Jeffery portrait
Keith Jeffery

A wonderful book both for the espionage aficionado and also for the yachtsman. [source]

Stephen Evans portrait
Stephen Evans

It’s the Great Game again, but this time it is played out in a small sailing boat on the Frisian Coast in Germany around 1900. [source]

The Spy Who Came In from the Cold book cover2

The Spy Who Came In from the Cold

John le Carré

4.2
In this classic, John le Carre's third novel and the first to earn him international acclaim, he created a world unlike any previously experienced in suspense fiction. With unsurpassed knowledge culled from his years in British Intelligence, le Carre brings to light the shadowy dealings of international espionage in the tale of a British agent who longs to end his career but undertakes one final,
Ben Macintyre portraitKeith Jeffery portraitNick Harkaway portrait Recommended by Ben Macintyre, Keith Jeffery, and Nick Harkaway.
Ben Macintyre portrait
Ben Macintyre

I think it sets the standard for all spy literature. It’s very hard to improve on The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. It’s the classic le Carré recipe of compromised individuals trying to find their way through a labyrinth of deception and self-deception [source]

Keith Jeffery portrait
Keith Jeffery

This is at the far end of the spectrum from James Bond, but it also says a lot about the bureaucracy of the Service. [source]

Nick Harkaway portrait
Nick Harkaway

It runs on rails from its inception to a point of crisis from which there is no return. And it’s really beautifully and brilliantly executed in its inevitability. It’s totally bleak, yet at the same time there is a feather of victory in it as well. It’s a really extraordinary book. [source]

The Double-Cross System: The Incredible True Story of How Nazi Spies Were Turned into Double Agents book cover3

The Double-Cross System: The Incredible True Story of How Nazi Spies Were Turned into Double Agents

J. C. Masterman

3.8
Filled with highly sensitive information about espionage, this secret report was never intended to go beyond a very select audience within the government and security services. The man who wrote it in 1945 was J. C. Masterman, MI5 recruit and leader of the shadowy XX Committee. He was the mastermind behind one of the war’s most remarkable achievements: finding, turning and then running almost ever
Ben Macintyre portrait Recommended by Ben Macintyre.
The Defence of the Realm: The Authorized History of MI5 book cover4

The Defence of the Realm: The Authorized History of MI5

Christopher Andrew

4.1
This book reveals the precise role of the Security Service in 20th-century British history, from its foundation by Captain Kell of the British Army in October 1909, through two world wars, up to and including its present roles in counter-espionage and counter-terrorism.
Ben Macintyre portrait Recommended by Ben Macintyre.
5

Casino Royale (James Bond, #1)

Ian Fleming

3.9
In the novel that introduced James Bond to the world, Ian Fleming’s agent 007 is dispatched to a French casino in Royale-les-Eaux. His mission? Bankrupt a ruthless Russian agent who’s been on a bad luck streak at the baccarat table.

One of SMERSH’s most deadly operatives, the man known only as “Le Chiffre,” has been a prime target of the British Secret Service for years. If Bond can wipe out his ba
Ben Macintyre portrait Recommended by Ben Macintyre.