This is the true story of how three British Secret Service agents from the Arab Bureau in Cairo helped General Allenby defeat Germany's ally, the Turks, and end World War One. Lawrence of Arabia reignited a failing Arab Revolt by training and leading a guerrilla force of Arab irregulars to take the port of Aqaba on the Red Sea. John Harte's book - as well as focusing on a critical moment that David Lean featured in his famous film in which young Captain Lawrence discovers a secret back door into the Turkish interior - also describes the forgotten nomadic life of the Bedouin tribes and their raiding parties, the founding of oil-rich Saudi Arabia led by King Ibn Saud, and his double-agent, the treacherous Major St John Philby whom spymaster Major Gertrude Bell of the SIS had trained in spy-craft.

About the Author
Author John Harte was born in London in 1925 when it was still at the center of foreign affairs and global issues. He was eight years old when Hitler became the sole dictator leading the biggest and most modern military forces ever. Harte's awareness of the imminence of World War 2 took place when five Cambridge students decided they must take a stand against the threat of Nazi Germany. But his perception arose without their understanding of world affairs. Since he had inherited a library of over two thousand books from his father, he began to study them. Several described the First World War, which still puzzled historians, economists and journalists. As a Second World War became inevitable, the author was growing into a teenager in the midst of the wartime crisis, with battles between fascists and communists, the unfolding civil war in Spain, and the helplessness of Britain's weakest-ever government. It was an anxious time in England for anyone who understood what was happening. The author became not only an observer of history, but also a watcher of political and military events. He was able to distance himself from communist ideology, which he found hard to take seriously. That was because he was still unaware of what the five brilliant Cambridge students had realized and discussed among themselves-that it was essential to help the Soviet Union to defeat Nazi Germany and prevent the German armed forces from conquering Britain. As a prep school boy, he watched the bombing of London and the Battle of Britain from a rooftop in the West End. With three older brothers in uniform, it was inevitable that the incidents of the war would be vividly stamped on his memory.

Reviews

The Passionate Spies by John Harte is an extraordinary and thrilling read about three secret agents in Britain's Secret Service, who organized and led the "Arab Revolt" in 1917. It gave independence to new Arab-speaking nations in the Middle East and founded oil-rich Saudi Arabia. The colourful characters of spymaster Gertrude Bell (the first female officer in the British Army), the legendary "Lawrence of Arabia," and the astute traitor St. John Philby (father of the notorious KGB double-spy Kim Philby) are all so dynamic that their heroics are hard to believe, but nevertheless true and soundly researched by a perceptive author who depicts them for us in stylish prose. I found it hard to put down with its thrilling twists and turns and surprises, and amazing characters.

-Steve Harris, America's Secret History

The current war in Syria has dwarfed all serious academic study of the pre-Ba'ath era. This has left a new generation of scholars with no new literature about the formative years of the Syrian state, which the notable exception of James Barr's highly acclaimed A Line in the Sand (2011). This is why John Hart's new book is important, shedding light on British conspiracy-and agents-who shape the modern Middle East. It focuses on the careers and contributions of three individuals, Gertrude Bell, John Philby, and TE Lawrence, better known as Lawrence of Arabia. Skeptics will argue that they have been studied in the past, but never in one book, however, and not with the hindsight of 100-years, packaged in a gripping manner that will appeal to 21st century readers.

-Sami Moubayed, historian and founding chairman of The Damascus History Foundation

Book Information
ISBN 9781951082543
Author John Harte
Format Hardback
Page Count 240
Imprint Cune Press,US
Publisher Cune Press,US