LIKE FATHER LIKE SON: A Dynasty Of Spies by Vin Arthey (St Ermins Press, £25. www.ermin.com)
COUNTY Durham author Vin Arthey has unearthed a fascinating tale of 20th century espionage which links the Tyneside seaside town of Whitley Bay with one of Soviet Russia's top spies.
Arthey has produced a meticulously researched account of how Rudolf Abel, also known as Willie Fisher, went from being a schoolboy in Whitley Bay to one of Russia's top spies.
Even more remarkably, after being arrested for espionage activities in New York, Fisher became one half of the first big spy-swap of the Cold War when in 1962 he was swapped for captured American spy pilot, Gary Powers, in Berlin.
It seems that Willie was only following in the footsteps of his father, Heinrich, who moved to Tyneside from Tsarist Russia before the World War I before becoming involved in gun-running and revolutionary politics.
Willie was brought up in the Newcastle suburb of Benwell before his father moved to the coast.
Arthey, who is programme leader in media production at Teesside University, first heard about the Fisher family when he was working as a television producer in Newcastle.
Published: 01/02/2005
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