Sir Robert Bruce Lockhart was an impressive figure in his time: a diplomat, intelligence agent, journalist, author and propagandist. A man who charmed his way into the confidences of everyone from Leon Trotsky to Anthony Eden, and who influential press baron Lord Beaverbook claimed ‘could well have been prime minister’. And yet he died mostly unremembered and near destitute, becoming little more than a footnote in the pages of history.
Rogue Agent puts Lockhart back in the spotlight, chronicling the life of this gifted yet habitually flawed upstart in its entirety, 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 (PWE), a secret body responsible for disinformation and propaganda in the Second World War. Along the way we see Lockhart, flaws and all, from his many affairs to crippling bouts of self-doubt and depression, and a hedonistic lifestyle that left him in a state of perpetual debt.
Exploring his contributions to the development of psychological warfare, his unorthodox mind and his penchant for long nights and dangerous women, Rogue Agent presents a full account of Lockhart’s life that restores him to the historical record and explains why he never fulfilled the potential others saw in him. This is the untold story of one the most unconventional heroes of the world’s darkest decades.