Like father like son - Vin Arthey

The crux of this absorbing and timely memoir of Cold War espionage is the swap of KGB agent Rudolph Abel for American pilot Frank Powers, back to their superpower homes in 1962. Abel had been caught spying in New York in the late 1950s; Powers shot down on a reconnaissance mission over Sverdlovsk in 1960. Yet astonishingly in 1983, it transpired that the man tried and convicted as Rudolph Abel was in fact ...Willie Fisher from Newcastle! The narrative traces Willie's story from Newcastle to Moscow to New York, tracing the birth of his father Heinrich to German parents in Russia. Despite marriage and a daughter and life in the northeast of England, Willie was dedicated to his Communist Party work, and an expertise with radio operation and his facility for languages. When Willie's spying activities were exposed in New York, cautious to the end he claimed to be Rudolph Abel, the name of an old comrade, and the Soviet authorities colluded in his deceit. This singular account of the changing face of communism and the evolution of a century in politics is also the story of a virtual dynasty of spies seen at work and at home - like father like son.