There's love, loss, betrayal, friendship and secrets galore and it gives a believable insight on how one, normal person might be let to betray her country. Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 29, 2018. Do you believe that this item violates a copyright?

Please try again. The book. She worked as a personal assistant to a director of important metals research during the Cold War, and passed along secrets to making the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union. More precisely, it avoids many of them. As far as awkward family secrets go, Granny Joan has one that will definitely ruin the holidays: she used to be a spy for the Russians. This item cannot be shipped to your selected delivery location. Dimensions: 198 x 129 x 25 mm, 'A meditation on the secrets we keep... Red Joan's strength lies in the complex personal relationships that underpin the spying game... A powerfully-written exploration of the far-reaching consequences that even the smallest-seeming actions can have.' Publisher: Vintage Publishing The book on which it is based took many liberties with the story of Melita Norwood in turning it into a novel. When Joan falls for Leo, the cousin of her Russian born friend Sonya, she gets dragged into a world that is dangerous and morally complex. The writing is so real that you do not know if you are reading fiction or non fiction. This understated arrival seems most appropriate for such a well-written and gently presented novel. As the needle swings around her moral compass, her characters are contradictory, our sympathies for them similarly so. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Reviewed in the United States on March 28, 2018, Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 2, 2019. She worked as a personal assistant to a director of important metals research during the Cold War, and passed along secrets to making the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union. Both story tracks were compelling, had great character development and good pacing. Frozen Molasses move faster than this plot, the most interesting thing is the Title. You can read more book reviews or buy Red Joan by Jennie Rooney at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free. You can read more book reviews or buy Red Joan by Jennie Rooney at Amazon.com. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. I’d never heard of it, not of Rooney herself, until it was nominated as our monthly read by one of the members of my book club, and she only found it via a small article in a Sunday newspaper.

Unable to add item to List. Would you like to proceed to the App store to download the Waterstones App? Click and Collect from your local Waterstones or get FREE UK delivery on orders over £25. Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free. The true mark of the story is that you find yourself thinking that you might have done exactly what Joan did in those circumstances.' Red Joan was a great book. Jennie Rooney was born in 1980 and grew up in Liverpool, Zambia and Bromley. Inspired by the true story of Melita Norwood, unmasked in 1999 (at 87) as the KGB’s longest-serving British spy, this briskly paced and well-researched historical novel centers on the life of Joan Stanley, a young physicist at Cambridge during the early years of World War II. ISBN: 9780099575733 While Joan’s Communist friends, especially Sonja, are depicted cynically and unsympathetically, the secret service can do no wrong. More than fifty years later, admitting her role in passing classified information, Joan reads a statement to the assembled media outside her home, explaining and defending her actions by saying that “the horror of another world war” had to be averted. Absolutely loved it! I was glued to this book more & more with each page I turned. There was an error retrieving your Wish Lists. If you have changed your email address then contact us and we will update your details.

The book on which it is based took many liberties with the story of Melita Norwood in turning it into a novel. The story seems to draw deeply on the true story of Melita Norwood who genuinely did work for the British Non-Ferrous Metals Research Association and who shared. Reviewed in the United States on June 15, 2019. After the War, she disappears to Australia and starts a. We’d love your help. Book is a bit vague on that (perhaps glossing over the plot flaw that they have new identities, but not necessary work experience, qualifications matching their new names) but I thought the inference was he taught whilst in Australia. Cambridge University in 1937 is awash with ideas and idealists - to unworldly Joan it is dazzling. At once bashful and brash, you see the world through Joan's eyes, while also wanting to shake her shoulders and wake her up to the true goings-on around her. Sonya is marginally likeable because of her acceptance of reality. The principal characters are all dislikable: Joan is self absorbed and magnificently insecure. - Andrzej Lukowski, Metro, 'If you loved William Boyd's Restless, you'll enjoy this.'

During five days of interrogation by MI5 we share her memories of student life in Cambridge and learn how the intense relationships she formed during that impressionable period drew her inexorably into the world of espionage. In a pivotal turning point, Leo, with whom Joan has meanwhile become romantically involved, tries to enlist her in espionage activity.

2 people found this helpful. Find all the books, read about the author, and more. While on the surface the book delves into whether or not Joan is a traitor, it is really about reconciling and dealing with the choices in life we make.

This book is set during the Cold War when Russia, the US and England are developing the atom bomb. After viewing product detail pages, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. Unable to add item to List. Red Joan was a great book. The plot is fairly simple. The fact that Red Joan was inspired by a true story made it all the more compelling. Your recently viewed items and featured recommendations, Select the department you want to search in. Fantastic! Captures very well the issues and political environment of the 1930s adn 40s and allows the characters to judge themselves rather than forcing current views and hind sight on those times. In five days of interrogation by MI5, Joan relives her days at Cambridge (where she became friends with two cousins and communist sympathizers, Leo and Sonya Galich), and her work as a secretary in a lab researching the components of nuclear technology. Her character is based on the true story of Melita Norwood who was identified at age 87 as being a long-serving Soviet spy. Some .mystery and and a some what endearing story of an elderly lady confronted with the truth of what she did at the time of WWIi! Please choose a different delivery location. In 2005, Joan Stanley, an 85-year-old widow and grandmother, is accused of passing atomic secrets to Stalin’s Russia during the Cold War. She sharply questions how the grotesque staged confessions by lifelong revolutionaries to such monstrous crimes could possibly be true.

William Mitchell is a fellow member of the group. Made into a movie staring Judy Dench and after reading the book, I will be first in line for a ticket. The story is quite moving. British imperialism, its hands dripping with blood from generations of colonial rule as well as in the class struggle at home, is portrayed in Red Joan as well-mannered and democratic. Judi Dench, in a small but important role, is enormously effective as the haunted elderly woman who finds the strength to explain and defend herself. At the age of eighty-five Joan Stanley is unmasked as a Cold War spy who passed secrets about the production of the atomic bomb to the Russians.

Reviewed in the United States on December 14, 2019.

The true mark of the story is that you find yourself thinking that you might have done exactly what Joan did in those circumstances. I love that!

Based on the real life story of Melita Norwood, an eighty seven year old woman who was unmasked as the KGB's longest serving British spy in 1999, this is a flawless novel.