Festilitt catches cold war fever

Festilitt catches Cold War Fever It seems the Cold War is in vogue in the arts at the moment: in film (the Oscar-winning Bridge of Spies), on TV (Deutschland 83, the highest-rated subtitled drama in television history) and in literature (Exposure, the latest critically acclaimed novel by Festilitt literary patron Helen Dunmore). And at Festilitt, we've caught the bug and we're very excited to bring you an intriguing slice of the Cold War with  Andrew Lownie who will present his superb biography of Guy Burgess, Stalin's Englishman. Chosen by The Independent as one of the ten best history books, Stalin's Englishman is a meticulously researched, crisply written and utterly compelling examination of one of Britain's most notorious traitors.  Challenging the received wisdom which casts Burgess as a rather hapless drunkard who was an embarrassment to the other Cambridge spies, Lownie places Burgess centre-stage, and argues that despite his chaotic personal life he was, in fact, the ring leader. Andrew Lownie is one of the UK's foremost literary agents and a founder of The Biographers' Club and its annual prize for first-time biographers. Stalin's Englishman has been described as containing  "exhaustive research, elegant construction, psychological acuity, wit and the necessary sympathy" (Spectator), as being "more riveting than a spy novel" (The Daily Telegraph) and as offering a "rich combination of spy story, cultural history, social outrage and character portrait" (BBC History ‘Book of the Year)