The Ghost: the Secret Life of CIA Spymaster James Jesus Angleton, by Jefferson Morley

Another very interesting man, but one I am very glad never to have met. (I had never realised his middle name was pronounced the Hispanic way, Hay-zoos.) A man who almost single-handedly perpetuated Cold War paranoia for a generation. I’m only halfway through at the moment, so have just got to him keeping his job after the Lee Harvey Oswald fiasco with a slipperiness that could give Boris Johnson lessons. JJA was one of a clique that thought it would have been no bad thing if there had been a nuclear war over Cuba, as at least then they would have felt enabled to go in and remove Castro by force. And while most of the nation recoiled in shock of JFK’s assassination, at least one class in Memphis sang ‘Dixie’ to rejoice. It makes me want to exclaim his middle name the Anglicised way, frequently.