Benedict Richard Pierce Macintyre (born 25 December 1963) is a British author, reviewer[1] and columnist for The Times newspaper. His columns range from current affairs to historical controversies.
Macintyre is the author of a book on the
gentleman criminalAdam Worth, The Napoleon of Crime: The Life and Times of Adam Worth, Master Thief.
He also wrote The Man Who Would Be King: The First American in Afghanistan (about
Josiah Harlan). This was also published as Josiah the Great: The True Story of the Man who Would be King.[7] Harlan is one of the candidates presumed to be the basis for
Rudyard Kipling's short story The Man Who Would Be King.
In 2008, Macintyre wrote an illustrated account of
Ian Fleming, creator of the fictional spy
James Bond, to accompany the For Your Eyes Only, Ian Fleming and James Bond exhibition at London's
Imperial War Museum, which was part of the Fleming Centenary celebrations.[8][9]
In 2022 his book Colditz: Prisoners of the Castle was released, a history of the German prison and its inhabitants, mostly British
POWs. The book received generally favorable reviews.[11]
Personal life
Macintyre has three children and is divorced from the writer and documentary maker
Kate Muir.[citation needed]
Documentaries
Five of Macintyre's books have been made into documentaries for the
BBC:
In 2021, Operation Mincemeat, a cinematic adaptation of Macintyre's 2010's homonymous book, subtitled The True Spy Story that Changed the Course of World War II, premiered at Australia's British Film Festival, and was released to the public in 2022.
Rogue Heroes: The History of the SAS, Britain's Secret Special Forces Unit That Sabotaged the Nazis and Changed the Nature of War, was adapted in 2022 under the title SAS: Rogue Heroes and released on 30 October 2022.[17][18]
On 8 December 2022, a six part series titled A Spy Among Friends premiered on the streaming service
ITVX. It's the adaptation of Macintyre's book: A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal.[19]
Awards and honours
1998
Edgar Award shortlist for The Napoleon of Crime
The Napoleon of Crime: The Life and Times of
Adam Worth, Master Thief. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1997.
ISBN978-0-374-21899-7.
A Foreign Field.
HarperCollins, 2001.
ISBN978-0-00-257122-7. (American edition: The Englishman's Daughter: A True Story of Love and Betrayal in World War One. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002.
ISBN978-0-374-12985-9.)
Rogue Heroes: The History of the
SAS, Britain's Secret Special Forces Unit That Sabotaged the Nazis and Changed the Nature of War; McClelland & Stewart; 2017; 400pp;
ISBN978-0771060328
^He has an elder sister, born 1962, and a younger brother, born 1971, per Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, 107th edition, vol. 2, ed. Charles Mosley, Burke's Peerage Ltd, 2003, p. 1812
^Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, 107th edition, vol. 2, ed. Charles Mosley, Burke's Peerage Ltd, 2003, p. 1812