Author(s): International Spy Museum

Current Affairs

I LIE FOR A LIVING is a compendium of spy biographies, organised thematically by clever categories such as 'Femme Fatales' or 'The Traitor Next Door'. I LIE FOR A LIVING profiles the lives of the masters of espionage. Spanning from biblical times to the present, the Handbook has ten chapters which take the reader undercover into the second oldest profession. A famous spy is, by definition, a failure. For intelligence operatives to succeed, they must accept the anonymity that comes with their jobs. Their stories and exploits may come out later, long after the fact. I LIE FOR A LIVING includes scintillating spyographies on femme fatales like Belle Boyd, Mata Hari, and Josephine Baker; on cold war heroes of both sides, anonymous for many years; famous authors who were spies like Christopher Marlowe and Graham Greene and double agents like Aldrich Aimes and Robert Hansson. Both the obscure and the very famous are covered in this wry look at the secret lives of spies. I LIE FOR A LIVING is one of the only books to gather in one volume the lives of the spies, as rich and varied as the "Lives of the Saints" two hundred years ago.