Sleepers hide
in plain sight. Spies, double agents, lovers, mothers, writers.
They wear smiling masks, turn up the collars of their raincoats, write in
invisible ink, wear many disguises, and consort with the enemy. Some of them
sleep for years, like Sleeping Beauty, waiting to be summoned. Some forget what
they are hiding from, or where their real allegiances lie. Sleeper examines
loyalty and dishonesty, class and power, the spies who were caught – like Mata
Hari and Ethel Rosenberg – and those who got away – like the Cambridge Spies –
seen through the eyes of friends, family and lovers (including the four wives
of Kim Philby). Sleeper is a book about secrets and lies, divided
loyalties and double lives, about waiting to come in from the cold.