Faber & Faber

When Making Enemies (the first volume in Francis Bennett's Cold War trilogy) was first published it attracted a rave review in the Daily Mail from Phillip Knightley. As the author of the best book on spying in the 20th century, The Second Oldest Profession, this was praise indeed.

'In 1947, deep in a forest outside Moscow, two Russian atomic scientists - a man and a woman - are digging in a clearing. Suddenly the woman turns away and is sick. At her feet, blackened and rotting, are three human heads. Their eyes are empty sockets and their open mouths are like holes in old canvas but it is clear that they are female from the scarves they are still wearing. As the man says: "There is only one question to ask: Why did it happen? Why?"

The answer is at the heart of this gripping book, the first of a series. Francis Bennett, a publisher who had never written a novel before, courageously decided that the Cold War - that struggle between communism and democracy, the outcome of which, some say, marked the end of history - was of such magnitude, such complexity and intruded so deeply into the lives of all who went through it that no conventional historical approach could satisfactorily capture it. Only a novelist could explain to future generations what it was really like for so many years in the shadow of nuclear annihilation.

From the start, Bennett captures the bewilderment of ordinary people at the speed with which the Cold War came upon us. A Russian atomic scientist explains to a colleague, Ruth Marchenko, the book's heroine, that it was only a few months ago that Russia and the West were allies who defeated Nazi Germany. Now they are bitter enemies. But is this due to misperception on both sides? "The West, our leaders tell us, is massing troops on our borders, preparing to use their nuclear bombs against us because communism is the enemy of capitalism and must be destroyed. The West sees our huge armies threatening their borders, preparing for the last great struggle, the ultimate victory of world communism."

The danger is that the West has the atomic bomb and Soviet Union does not. But it does have an intelligence service that is not inhibited by democratic restraints and, in particular, Colonel Andropov, one of the most realistic intelligence officers ever to appear in modern spy fiction.

Slowly, with infinite care and patience, and with ruthless disregard for the feelings of the people he is manipulating, Andropov creates a conspiracy aimed at delaying Britain's development of its own nuclear deterrent until Russia can catch up. But Britain has Danny Stevens, a young army officer fresh from duty with the occupation forces in Berlin, who is loosely connected to the British security services. His father is a Cambridge physicist who believes that science is international and that the best way to save mankind from being wiped out by a never-ending atomic chain reaction is for atomic scientists to share information. Soon, Stevens is trying to save his father from charges of treachery and, in doing so, unwittingly becomes enmeshed in Andropov's conspiracy.

The plot also features two love stories. One involves Danny Stevens and a Finnish doctor, which is full of passion, jealousy and despair. The other, treated with restraint, is between Danny's father, Professor Stevens, and his Russian colleague, Ruth Marchenko, where the realities of life have brought an acceptance that few relationships are perfect and that memories of fleeting, tender moments are often all that we can expect.

This is an intricately plotted book with many twists and turns. Its pace comes not from violent physical action but from clashes of intellect and emotion. Yet it is more than the intelligent reader's spy thriller and comparisons with other spy writers do not do it justice.

Bennett wants us to reflect on nearly every aspect of the Cold War, including Britain's and Russia's roles in it. He wants us to strip away the propaganda, the lies that both sides told their citizens, and think for ourselves what it was all about and how it intruded on our lives.

How could the Soviet belief in social justice and the equality of men, all so good in theory, become so perverted in reality? Was there a communist-style orthodoxy in Britain, too, that Soviet man was our natural enemy, never to be trusted? Was it a mistake for Britain to have built its own nuclear deterrent?

"No bomb and we can remake the country economically," says a British intelligence officer. "Rebuild our industries. Stake our claim as an economic power. Or divert massive energies and resources we don't possess into building this dangerous weapon. Starve the country of what it needs but take our place in the game with the other nuclear players. What do we do?"

Like all the best historical novels, the authenticity of background and time lend the story added credibility. I have never read the relationship between an intelligence officer and his pawn described so well - the slow unfolding of a map that sets out the journey while concealing the destination and its purpose.

It is hard to find fault with this debut novel. The writing is first class, the characters are all believable and the main theme of the book is engrossing. Bennett's aim may have been ambitious, but this first volume suggests he is well on the way to achieving it.'

Review originally published in the Daily Mail.

See also: The Cold War as Entertainment by Francis Bennett