Rogue Agent

Sir Robert Bruce Lockhart (1887–1970) was an impressive figure: a diplomat, intelligence agent, conspirator, journalist and propagandist who played a key role in both world wars. A man who charmed his way into the confidences of everyone from Leon Trotsky to Anthony Eden, and whom influential press baron Lord Beaverbrook claimed ‘could well have been prime minister’. And yet Lockhart died almost forgotten and near destitute, becoming little more than a footnote in the pages of history.

Rogue Agent is the first biography of this gifted yet habitually flawed maverick. It chronicles his many exploits, from his time as Britain’s ‘Agent’ in Moscow, when he conspired with MI6’s ‘Ace of Spies’ Sidney Reilly to bring down the Communist regime, to leading the Political Warfare Executive, a secret body responsible for disinformation and propaganda in the Second World War.

Exploring Lockhart’s unorthodox thinking and contributions to the development of psychological warfare as well as his hedonistic lifestyle – the late nights and many affairs that left him in a state of perpetual debt – Rogue Agent tells the thrilling story of this unconventional war hero.