My Five Cambridge Friends

The so-called Cambridge Five-Guy Burgess, Donald Maclean, Kim Philby, Anthony Blunt and John Cairncross-comprised what may have been the most notorious spy ring in history. In his richly informative memoir, Modin describes the personal relations among the quintet-and subtly speculates about their homosexual interaction. Modin, who is retired and lives in Moscow, was their KGB desk officer from 1944 to 1955, and arranged the 1951 defections of Maclean and Burgess. He is surprisingly lavish in his praise of Cairncross, who is generally regarded as the least significant of the five, revealing that he was the first to inform Moscow of the Anglo-American atomic bomb project and provided crucial information about the vulnerability of the Germans' main battle tank. Modin also details his friendships with Burgess and Philby (who defected in 1963) during their Russian exile; Maclean, however, avoided all socializing. Of the two who remained in Britain and were never prosecuted, Cairncross now lives in the south of France and Blunt died in 1983. Burgess died in 1965, Maclean in 1983, Philby in 1988. Photos not seen by PW. 25,000 first printing; author tour. (Jan.)