The Ingenious Mr. Pyke: Inventor, Fugitive, Spy

by Henry Hemming Narrated by James Langton

Overview

In the World War II era, Geoffrey Pyke was described as one of the world's great minds-to rank alongside Einstein. Pyke was an inventor, adventurer, polymath, and unlikely hero of both world wars. He earned a fortune on the stock market, founded an influential pre-school, wrote a bestseller, and came up with the idea for the US and Canadian Special Forces. In 1942, he convinced Winston Churchill to build an aircraft carrier out of reinforced ice.



Pyke escaped from a German WWI prison camp, devised an ingenious plan to help the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War, and launched a private attempt to avert the outbreak of the Second World War by sending into Nazi Germany a group
of pollsters disguised as golfers.



And he may have been a Russian spy.



In 2009, long after Pyke's death, MI5 released a mass of material suggesting that Pyke was in fact a senior official in the Soviet Comintern. In 1951, papers relating to Pyke were found in the flat of "Cambridge Spy" Guy Burgess after his defection to Moscow. MI5 had "watchers" follow Pyke through the bombed-out streets of London, his letters were opened, and listening devices picked up clues to his real identity. Convinced he was a Soviet agent codenamed Professor P, MI5 helped to bring his career to an end.



Henry Hemming is the first reporter to sift through this extraordinary new information and finally tell Pyke's astonishing story in full: his brilliance, his flaws, and his life of adventures, ideas, and secrets.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

★ 03/16/2015
Geoffrey Pyke, described in his 1948 Times of London obituary as “one of the most original if unrecognized figures of the present century,” always seemed to find himself in the right place at the right time, as Hemming (Abdulnasser Gharem) documents in this masterful biography. In July 1914, with Europe on the verge of war, Pyke talked his way into a position with Reuters as special correspondent in Copenhagen. He was soon captured by the Germans and sent to the Ruhleben concentration camp, from which he escaped, writing a bestselling book about the experience. That alone makes for a riveting read, but Pyke’s story was far from over. Hemming details how Pyke also made lasting innovations in educational theory, criticized Nazi anti-Semitism, aided the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War, convinced Winston Churchill that an aircraft carrier made out of reinforced ice was a good idea, and was suspected of being a Soviet spy. Hemming’s superlative text is nearly as nimble as Pyke’s mind, and he reveals who this remarkable innovator really was. B&w photos. (May)

From the Publisher

“It is as if [Geoffrey Pyke] had been invented by G. K. Chesterton and given posthumous fame by John le Carré - which underlines the extraordinary accomplishment of his actual biographer Henry Hemming.”—Sir Michael Holroyd

“Reads wonderfully like an adventure story…Hemming…turn[s] the story of a nerdish chameleon into a page-turner.”—Guardian

“[Pyke's] was not a lucky life but, in his biographer, he has gained a little bit of posthumous luck. This admirable and thoroughly enjoyable book should rescue a weirdly original and innovative talent from oblivion.”—The Sunday Times (London)

"Well-written…throws fascinating light on a forgotten hero of the Second World War."—The Independent (UK)

“[A] masterful biography…Hemming's superlative text is nearly as nimble as Pyke's mind, and he reveals who this remarkable innovator really was.”—Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW

“An unlikely tale of true espionage… Fans of Graham Greene and Alan Furst will revel in this well-told true-life story.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Biographer Henry Hemming makes Geoffrey Pyke a fascinating object of study.”—Columbus Post Dispatch

From the Publisher - AUDIO COMMENTARY

"A rich recounting of a brilliant, idiosyncratic man." —Booklist

Library Journal - Audio

02/15/2016
Geoffrey Pyke (1893–1948) was an unconventional, independent thinker who approached life with energy and focus. He found unusual solutions to problems, some of which had lasting social influence. As a young man in a World War I German prisoner-of-war camp he devised an escape so ingenious that the British government doubted he could have done it without German assistance. As a young father, he started an experimental school to give his son an education whereby curiosity and independence were rewarded. Pyke's commitment to improving society through new ideas continued through Hitler's campaign against the Jews, the Spanish Civil War, and World War II. Some chapters are more interesting than others; Pyke's escape from wartime Germany is followed by a treatise on educational theory. Furthermore, names relatively unknown to an American audience require more information than what is imparted in the text. James Langton reads with clarity and precision; however, this book would be more enjoyable in a print format that allows easy access to photographs and footnotes. VERDICT Purchase only for high demand. ["Well-researched, containing multiple notes, yet also written in a casual tone with pop culture references throughout": LJ 4/1/15 review of the PublicAffairs hc.]—Juleigh Muirhead Clark, Colonial Williamsburg Fdn. Lib., VA

Library Journal

04/01/2015
Journalist Hemming's (Misadventures in the Middle East) breezy biography of Geoffrey Pyke (1893–1948) is well-researched, containing multiple notes, yet also written in a casual tone with pop culture references throughout. The author paints a colorful picture of tall, gaunt, atheist, Jewish, possibly-a-spy Pyke's turbulent and fascinatingly contradictory life. Pyke audaciously planned to enter Germany in 1914 to get the scoop as a war correspondent for the British newspaper Daily Chronicle. He successfully sneaked in, was imprisoned, escaped with a spy, and had a heart attack, but made it back to England and ultimately Cambridge. While Pyke did not graduate from college, this never hindered his copious writing and inventing; his creations caught the imagination of Winston Churchill and the British military (as well as MI5) and led to Pyke's involvement in intellectual circles such the Bloomsbury Group and George Bernard Shaw devotees, one of whom he married. VERDICT Those fond of biographies and 20th-century European war tales told in a modern vein will enjoy this book.—Sara R. Tompson, Jet Propulsion Laboratory Lib., Archives & Records Section, Pasadena, CA

Kirkus Reviews

2015-03-11
An unlikely tale of true espionage by London-based journalist/historian Hemming (Abdulnasser Gharem: Art of Survival, 2012, etc.) in which a nerdy Jewish kid becomes a kind of James Bond. Geoffrey Pyke (1893-1948) found his calling in the face of Nazi Germany's official anti-Semitism. He did not forget that as a British POW in Germany in World War I, though, he had been confined to a barracks reserved for Jews—and not by Germans but by his fellow British officers, masters of "the casual anti-Semitism of Edwardian England." Still, he remained a loyal servant of the empire, gathering valuable intelligence that would have earned him a firing squad as a spy. Convinced that the educational orthodoxy was misguided, Pyke also attempted to start a network of schools to be funded by his wizardry in the stock market. Convinced that it was not enough to defeat the Nazis but to "make fools of them in beating them," he gained the confidence of Winston Churchill and cooked up some elaborately improbable technologies, including "an unsinkable aircraft carrier made out of a cheap new material that could be produced quickly." Along the way, Pyke fell into the communist orbit. "I am primarily an anti-fascist," he insisted, but he would have been a candidate for execution by his own country had he not beaten his pursuers to the punch. Hemming examines the facts, augmented by "the release of previously classified documents by MI5," surrounding the Pyke affair, suggesting that while his subject, a tinkerer and discoverer, journalist, and genius indeed, had given material aid to the Soviets, he may not have been so deeply involved as was supposed. Pyke has been dead for nearly 70 years, so modest rehabilitation is of less interest than the fascinating story surrounding his deeds—for, as Time noted, killing himself "was the only unoriginal thing he had ever done." Fans of Graham Greene and Alan Furst will revel in this well-told true-life story.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170952199
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	07/28/2015
Edition description:	Unabridged

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