Steve Pound’s Book Reviews

The Lost Spy. Andrew Meier. Weidenfeld and Nicholson.402pp.2009.

This book has been described as “a jewel” by Simon Sebag Montefiore and he is not guilty of exaggeration. Quite simply this is one of the most extraordinary books I’ve ever read and the tale it tells is not just of a human tragedy but the history of Communism in the US and the horrific betrayal of the October Revolution – and those who served it.
The prose is pared down from necessity as there are more than a dozen good books fighting to escape the covers of “The Lost Spy” and the author has adopted a lean muscularity of style that means that there are no superfluous words and yet sufficient suggestions and signposts to years of study.
Put simply this is the biography of the utterly tragic idealist Isaiah Oggins, a small town American born of emigrant parents, successful student at Columbia University, agent of Soviet Russia, father, husband, gulag prisoner in Norilsk hundreds of miles north of the Arctic Circle and, finally, victim of execution by lethal injection in a white tiled room, Laboratory Number One, next door to the Lubyanka.
The incredible amount of research and effort undertaken by the author increases the admiration that many already harboured for Andrew Meier and the gentleness and respectfulness he shows to “Cy” Oggins living son reveals a decent human being as well as writer and investigator of genius.

Steve at Grand Union Village

Steve Pound

Opening the Shop

 

Opening a new butchers on Grand Union Village accompanied by Oreana Jones, Chair of the Grand Union Village Residents’
Association!

 

"One Day - This will all be yours"

Seen here with the owner, Tariq, and his son!

 

 

 

 

 

Steve, Oreana and the Rest of Tariq’s Family

Grenadian Day in Northolt

Enjoying a "Tipple"

Steve Pound MP, seen here enjoying a Grenadian Day in Northolt with a bottle of a popular Grenadian fortified wine!