Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Zigzag: The incredible wartime exploits of double agent Eddie Chapman
    Unavailable
    Zigzag: The incredible wartime exploits of double agent Eddie Chapman
    Unavailable
    Zigzag: The incredible wartime exploits of double agent Eddie Chapman
    Audiobook15 hours

    Zigzag: The incredible wartime exploits of double agent Eddie Chapman

    Written by Nicholas Booth

    Narrated by Roger Davis

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    Read the ebook instead

    About this audiobook

    Eddie Chapman was a womaniser, blackmailer and safecracker. He was also a great hero - the most remarkable double agent of the Second World War. Chapman became the only British national ever to be awarded an Iron Cross for his work for the Reich. He was also the only German spy ever to be parachuted into Britain twice. But it was all an illusion: Eddie fooled the Germans in the same way he conned his victims in civilian life. He was working for the British all along. Until now, the full story of Eddie Chapman's extraordinary exploits has never been told, thwarted by the Official Secrets Act. Now at last all the evidence has been released, including Eddie's M15 files, and a complete account of what he achieved is told in this enthralling book.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLittle, Brown (Hachette UK) Audio
    Release dateApr 6, 2017
    ISBN9781405538244
    Author

    Nicholas Booth

    Nicholas Booth worked for Astronomy Now magazine, wrote about science for British newspapers, and was a technology editor on The Times (London). He is the author of true-life detective stories about spies and fraudsters, including Zigzag: The Incredible Wartime Exploits of Double Agent Eddie Chapman, published by Arcade. He lives in Cheshire, England, with his wife and their two cats.

    More audiobooks from Nicholas Booth

    Related to Zigzag

    Related audiobooks

    Military Biographies For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Commentary: I Was An Army Grunt At The Pointy End Of The American Spear. But No Longer

      Apr 5, 2019

      I'm one of the lucky ones. Leaving the madness of U.S. Army life with a modest pension and all of my limbs intact feels like a genuine escape. Both the Army and I knew it was time for me to go. I'd tired of carrying water for empire and they'd grown

      3 min read

    • Article

      History From The Bottom Up

      Feb 1, 2023

      History From The Bottom Up
      5 min read

    • Article

      It Is Finished

      Nov 5, 2020

      It Is Finished
      9 min read

    • Article

      Irwin’s Brigade At Antietam

      Dec 14, 2021

      Irwin’s Brigade At Antietam
      8 min read

    • Article

      Strategic Scapegoat

      Apr 2, 2019

      Strategic Scapegoat
      2 min read

    • Article

      Cinema Connection

      Nov 16, 2021

      Cinema Connection
      7 min read

    • Article

      NANDOR FODOR & THE TALKING MONGOOSE

      Sep 7, 2023

      Throughout the 1930s, the world’s newspapers were full of incredible stories about Gef, a ‘talking mongoose’ or ‘man-weasel’ who had allegedly appeared in the home of a peculiar family living in a somewhat dilapidated Isle of Man farmhouse. Gef was s

      11 min read

    • Article

      Sunday DRIVE

      Mar 6, 2022

      Sunday DRIVE
      7 min read

    • Article

      Dear Paul

      Jul 10, 2020

      Dear Paul
      6 min read

    • Article

      Thirty Years Of Laughs

      Feb 9, 2022

      Thirty Years Of Laughs
      5 min read

    • Article

      Paddy's Last Lines

      Apr 3, 2024

      Eighty years ago, on 26th April 1944, the writer Patrick Leigh Fermor (1915-2011) led the daring raid to kidnap General Kreipe, the officer leading the German forces in occupied Crete. I am afraid that, nearly 70 years later, I think it was me what d

      3 min read

    • Article

      Ill-fated Connection

      Apr 23, 2024

      Email wdytyaeditorial@ourmedia.co.uk Write to WDYTYA? Magazine, Eagle House, Bristol BS1 4ST WIN an AncestryDNA test kit from ancestry.co.uk WORTH £79 The writer of our star letter wins an AncestryDNA test worth £79 – so drop us a line and share your

      6 min read

    • Article

      Where There’s Smoke?

      Aug 4, 2020

      Where There’s Smoke?
      5 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Jan 26, 2023

      CONTACT US BY POST: PO BOX 1200, WHITSTABLE CT1 9RH, OR E-MAIL SIEVEKING@FORTEANTIMES.COM PLEASE PROVIDE US WITH YOUR POSTAL ADDRESS “In search of British Bigfeet” [FT425:30-36] mentions the wode-wose (the wild man of the woods). The article says tha

      9 min read

    • Article

      Readers' Letters

      May 3, 2023

      Readers' Letters
      5 min read

    • Article

      Readers’ Letters

      Sep 21, 2022

      Readers’ Letters
      6 min read

    • Article

      THINGS THAT GO Bump B In The Night

      Mar 16, 2021

      Poltergeists are not always violent and frightening – they can just be really annoying! In 1951, the Chilliwack Progress, the local newspaper for the town of Chilliwack in Canada, reported several times on the sound of banging on the walls which went

      2 min read

    • Article

      The Old Un’s Notes

      Jun 30, 2021

      * Have Oldie-readers who wear glasses ever thought where specs come from? The answer lies in a new book, Through the Looking Glasses: The Spectacular Life of Spectacles, by Travis Elborough. Elborough, himself bespectacled, traces the history of spec

      6 min read

    Reviews for Zigzag

    3.5/5

    14 ratings4 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 1/5
      So very boring. Protagonist unimpressive and overrated. Utterly pointless book. Couldn't finish it. Not recommended.
    • 4/5
      ZigZag is the true story of Eddie Chapman, a double agent for the British in World War II. His early life as a career criminal, was interrupted when he was captured on the Isle of Jersey, by the invading Germans. After some time in jail, he convinced the German's he would spy on England for them. He was trained in espionage and dropped by parachute into England , where his first act was to turn himself in and offer to work for the British as a double agent against the Germans. His life is a series of twists and turns, always searching for the next adventure, always crossing the line from petty criminal to conman, from spy to counterspy. A well written and thoroughly researched book. Sometimes it is hard for us or Eddie to tell which road he has chosen to travel.
    • 4/5
      This work is very well researched, and the writing is excellent.

      Where I take issue with the story is in the motivations of its protagonist, Eddie Chapman. From a pre-war life of petty crime, and complete disregard for civility, we are asked to believe that Chapman (while languishing in a hell-hole of a jail in the Channel Islands) has had a crisis of conscience, and offers himself up as fodder for British Intelligence. But to do so, he must first get himself recruited by the Nazis' intelligence arm, the Abwehr.

      Considering Chapman's behaviour leading up to the fateful moment when he offers his talents (among which is an active familiarity with explosives) to German Intelligence immediately after they overrun the Channel Islands, the intelligent and discerning reader cannot help but question his motives. In fact, all the way through the book, it is evident that Chapman's sole motivation is either to get himself out of a bad situation (as in the Jersey jail cell), or to enrich himself (by going back to Germany after he has been apprehended by British Intelligence, and then Chapman patriotically offers himself up as a double agent). Of course, he brags to all and sundry that the Germans owe him a king's ransom for "blowing up" the factory producing DeHavilland's mighty Mosquito fighter-bomber.

      In every incident throughout the war, Chapman shows himself to be nothing more than an opportunist. Yes, it is likely that he did aid British Intelligence in a couple of minor ways, but it seems highly likely that Eddie Chapman's main concern and motivation was nothing more than to live a life of luxury and self-importance, without regard for the consequences.

    • 3/5
      Interesting narrative about a little known spy during the second world war. Much context was provided during the first quarter of the book which was rather slow-developing, since the protagonist was in jail, but once the war began, it picked up the pace. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys little known stories of WWII.