Oxford-born writer's 'unknown' spy thriller shortlisted for Waterstones award

A best-selling author has described the spy in his latest book as "unlike any I have come across before".

Oxford-born multimillion-selling writer and historian Ben Macintyre says he used never-before-seen material to craft the Cold War thriller Redwood - the "unknown spy" whose work "possibly averted nuclear Armageddon".

It has made the 2026 Waterstones shortlist for Book of the Year, which highlights the books that booksellers have most enjoyed recommending to readers.

Even though Macintyre has written extensively about espionage, including bestseller Operation Mincemeat , he says he "had not realised just how important Redwood was" before writing the book.

"Redwood was a Russian intelligence officer based in Iran who went over to the other side and he agreed to spy for Britain for MI6," he said.

The man behind the codename is Vladimir Kuzichkin, who Macintyre says had a "very private problem".

The author said it was a sexual secret, which if revealed, would have turned his life upside-down, so in his desperation, the agent saw the only solution in the MI6, in return for the KGB's secrets.

"It has been completely covered up - that one person's personal trauma that changed the world in very, very significant ways.

"He revealed the existence of a plot on the part of the Soviet Union to take over Iran to initially have the Communist Party mount a coup backed by the KGB and then to have the Red Army move in to support it," the author added.

"If that had happened then the US would undoubtedly have responded with nuclear weapons because they didn't have enough weapons and enough troops in theatre to deal with it."

But he says that also reinforced the Iranian regime, making it also "partly a story about unintended consequences".

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American author John Grisham says that given the current war in Iran, Macintyre's latest book "is certainly his most timely".

Macintyre agrees the story has "very strong modern resonances".

"Some of my main characters in this book were killed in the first Israeli air strike last February - the situation that we face in the Middle East would be very different without this unknown double agent at the centre of it."

Macintyre says he grew up "in a house in north Oxford that was suffused with history".

"I went to Cambridge, as did my siblings - Cambridge is also a nest of spies, in fact probably more so than Oxford."

He says in the spy world truth is "always" stranger than fiction.

"Particularly with this story because it is so unlikely and his motivation for doing what he did is so different from any other spy I've ever come across.

"This is one of those cases that if you wrote it up as a novel, no one would believe you."

Macintyre says it is "a delight" to see his book shortlisted.

The winner will be announced on 26 November.

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