Soldier, Spy

‘A remarkably vivid and authentic chronicler of working-class life in the twentieth century’ Juliet Gardiner

Soldier, Spy is the astonishing memoir of one ordinary man and soldier, Victor Gregg, as he resumes civilian life after the Second World War. As for so many others, picking up where he had left off proved far from simple for Gregg; he had fought many battles, lost many friends and been deeply damaged psychologically by his experiences as a prisoner of war in Dresden. To escape the memories and the emotional trauma, he moved from one job and distraction to the next: from immersing himself in the adrenaline-fuelled competitive cycling to working as a long distance lorry driver, from becoming a Communist Party member to becoming a spy and, by his seventieth birthday, helping bring about the fall of the Berlin Wall. This honest and gritty account is the third book in a remarkable trilogy that both explores the permanent and damaging consequences of a life at war and tells the story of one ordinary man who went on to lead the most extraordinary life.