Reviews round-up
The CIA Book Club
by Charlie English
4 of 4 critics positive
7 reviews: 1 rave, 3 positives; 3 not stating a verdict in public
What the critics said
“It was like fresh air”
The CIA Book Club by Charlie English review – ‘It was like fresh air’
“reminds how revolutionary reading can be”
‘CIA Book Club’ illuminates Cold War skullduggery and reminds how revolutionary reading can be
“The result was a victory”
How the CIA smuggled books across the Iron Curtain — and won the war of words
“reads like an Ian Fleming novel”
Review | This true story of CIA book smuggling reads like an Ian Fleming novel
How the CIA smuggled Orwell and Le Carré into the eastern bloc
Winning the Cold War With le Carré and Cosmopolitan Magazine (Published 2025)
Verdicts are read from each outlet's own headline and summary; quotes are their words, credited and linked. Where a paywalled summary does not give the critic's view, we say so rather than guess. How it works.
