Agent Zigzag was published by Bloomsbury in 2007. Eddie Chapman was a pre-war criminal — a safecracker, con man, and serial seducer imprisoned on the Channel Island of Jersey when the Germans occupied it in 1940. He volunteered to work for the Abwehr (German military intelligence), was trained in sabotage and radio transmission at their school in Nantes, and was parachuted into England in December 1942 with orders to destroy the de Havilland aircraft factory at Hatfield.
Instead, Chapman walked to the nearest police station and offered his services to MI5. For the next two years, as “Agent Zigzag” (MI5’s codename, reflecting his untrustworthiness), he fed false intelligence to the Germans while simultaneously being decorated by them — he received the Iron Cross from the Abwehr, the only British citizen to do so during the war.
Macintyre reconstructs the story from newly declassified MI5 files, Chapman’s own unreliable memoirs, and German intelligence records. The result is a spy story that reads like a picaresque novel — Chapman was charming, amoral, fearless, and genuinely fond of his German handlers, even while betraying them.
Collecting Agent Zigzag
First edition (Bloomsbury, London, 2007): Boards with dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition, fine in jacket: $30–$60
- Signed first: $60–$120