Charlie English

La lecture est une arme de combat : l’histoire du « book club » qui a défié le pouvoir soviétique Pendant la guerre froide, les opposants au régime de Moscou s’organisent, avec le soutien de la CIA, pour faire passer des livres interdits à l’Est, afin d’entretenir l’espoir contre le totalitarisme....

www.lemonde.fr/idees/articl...

Great Yarmouth to Host Britain’s Biggest White Power Concert in Years – HOPE not hate Great Yarmouth is set to host the largest white power music gig held in the UK for at least 10 years, HOPE not hate can...

Great Yarmouth is set to host the biggest neo-nazi music festival in over a decade. The Home Office has the power to block entry of overseas bands, which will scupper the promoters plans. But they won’t act unless we demand it. Email the Home Office now: hopenothate.org.uk/2025/08/28/g...

The Most Successful CIA Operation You’ve Never Heard of How the agency’s program to circulate banned books helped take down the Iron Curtain.

"In addition to destabilizing democracies and championing imperialists, the CIA has always had great taste in art"—including a books program that fueled the Polish underground.

A real pleasure to edit this review of @charlieenglish1.bsky.social's latest book in FP: foreignpolicy.com/2025/08/01/c...

Congress eliminated public media funding, and the president signed it into law. At a time of deep division, public media brings us together.

Help keep it strong. Join our monthly donors today: n.pr/458sOhq

Opinion | ‘1984’ Hasn’t Changed, but America Has

Me for NYT on book bans and the CIA: ‘1984’ Hasn’t Changed, but America Has www.nytimes.com/2025/07/27/o...

Review: ‘CIA Book Club’ illuminates Cold War skullduggery and reminds how revolutionary reading can be Charlie English delves into the CIA's attempts to combat communism via literature including '1984' in a book that reminds, in an age of book bans, how powerful stories — and reading — can be.

'CIA Book Club' illuminates Cold War skullduggery and reminds how revolutionary reading can be

Summer reading: the 50 hottest books to read now From dazzling debuts to unmissable memoirs, prize-winning novels to page-turning histories … Plus our pick of paperbacks and children’s fiction

Thank you, Guardian books, for choosing The CIA Book Club as one of the “50 hottest books to read right now”. #theciabookclub www.theguardian.com/books/ng-int...

CIA nadało Giedroyciowi pseudonim "Beretta". Agentów irytował: "Nic nie można nakazać, to on wydaje rozkazy" Nie wiadomo, kto kogo skłonił do współpracy, ale możliwe, że to Giedroyc zwerbował CIA, a nie na odwrót.

wyborcza.pl/alehistoria/...

Those lovely people at @WmCollinsBooks are marking Father’s day with a 99p Kindle Daily Deal for The CIA Book Club. Download it here: www.amazon.co.uk/CIA-Book-Clu... #theciabookclub

Marco Rubio said they shut R/FIMI because it had “silenced and censored the voices of Americans”. In fact its mission was to counter foreign disinformation.

Its closure leaves the US more vulnerable to hostile influence operations. Who could possibly benefit from that? 5/5

Beattie has also said that “Nato is a far greater threat to American liberty than Putin ever was”, and called Britain a “poor and pathetic kingdom” that would be “far better off under Chinese domination”. Oh yes, and his wife has family ties to Kremlin… 4/5

This despite the fact that Beattie has called for “brave and strong” Vladimir Putin to infiltrate “just about every Western institution”. 3/5

Beattie – sacked from Trump’s first administration for speaking at a conference attended by white supremacists — was tasked with destroying R/FIMI, the US agency charged with combating Russian propaganda… 2/5

Trump official who shut down counter-Russia agency has links to Kremlin Darren Beattie, who alarmed the State Department with his pro-Moscow views, is married to a woman whose uncle has ties to Vladimir Putin

This Darren Beattie story is breathtaking even by the Orwellian standards of the Trump era… 1/5
www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2025...

I’ll be talking from 6.30pm tonight at Daunt Books Hampstead about The CIA Book Club. A few places available, do drop in if you can. dauntbooks.co.uk/shop/events/... #coldwar #theciabookclub #BookTour

‘It allowed us to survive, to not go mad’: the CIA book smuggling operation that helped bring down communism From George Orwell to Hannah Arendt and John le Carré, thousands of blacklisted books flooded into Poland during the cold war, as publishers and printers risked their lives for literature

I heard @charlieenglish1.bsky.social talk about his book, The CIA Book Club, at Derby Book Festival yesterday - an amazing (true) story. I'm looking forward to reading it but here's a glimpse... www.theguardian.com/books/2025/f...

17 new books our critics can't wait to read this summer We asked some of our trusted critics which upcoming books they are most looking forward to. Here are the fiction and nonfiction titles they picked.

Delighted that The CIA Book Club has been chosen as an NPR pick of the summer. "The book's allure is intrigue, danger, and suspense in the service of meaning. I'm in." Thanks @npr.org. #theciabookclub
www.npr.org/2025/05/21/n...

How the CIA book club became one of the Cold War's most important weapons

The CIA Book Club is the story of the US organisation's programme of sending free-thinking, uncensored literature into the East.

Hollywood none the wiser after “Hollywood ambassador” Jon Voight outlines US production plan Oscar winner proposing federal tax incentives, tax code changes, international co-production treaties, infrastructure subsidies, limited tariffs.

Always thought Jon Voight was a bit of an idiot. www.screendaily.com/news/hollywo...

Had a wonderful chat with the v. intelligent folks at @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social. The result is this podcast about The CIA Book Club. Thanks to Dr. Miranda Melcher for hosting. newbooksnetwork.com/the-cia-book...

Do that! x

Thank you..... and yes, I was wary of the comparison but get less so as time passes. All those Nazi salutes don't just happen by accident do they? I guess they think they're baiting the libs and all that guff.

You too! Very good, thanks, yes. Must get together some time...

Love Carney

Thanks Gerard, that was one of the best reviews I've ever had. 😀 Strangely I dropped into Bluesky today to find this NYTimes quote (via @sianushka.bsky.social and
@dluckarchivist.bsky.social). Parallels with Hitler are everywhere...

‘It allowed us to survive, to not go mad’: the CIA book smuggling operation that helped bring down communism From George Orwell to Hannah Arendt and John le Carré, thousands of blacklisted books flooded into Poland during the cold war, as publishers and printers risked their lives for literature

www.theguardian.com/books/2025/f... A thrilling extract from a new book by @charlieenglish1.bsky.social The CIA Book Club: The Best-Kept Secret of the Cold War. What a story!

Loving the Spinal Tap reference.