‘A terrifically readable account of a fascinating figure’ Max Hastings, The Sunday Times

‘A gripping read’ The i Paper

‘A thrilling account of one of the most unpredictable, memorable and poignant figures in our history’ Irish Times

From the master storyteller behind 2023’s critically acclaimed KILLING THATCHER

A Rebel and a Traitor is the story of a rogue imperial consul who sought to forge a new nation in the middle of a war – and the mercurial spy chief who sought to destroy him by any means.

The rogue consul was Sir Roger Casement, a decorated diplomat who turned his back on the British empire and instead joined the rising Irish cause at the turn of the 20th century. At the book’s centre is the manhunt for Casement led by intelligence officer Reginald ‘Blinker’ Hall, the legendary British spy chief who pioneered codebreaking, early mass surveillance and media manipulation.

As he did for the critically acclaimed Killing Thatcher, master storyteller Rory Carroll has combed diaries, letters, police reports, memoirs, court transcripts, secret service archives and declassified government files in the US, Britain, Ireland and Germany to create a page-turning history, and a story that still echoes through Anglo-Irish relations. A Rebel and a Traitor raises profound questions about honour, courage and the price of patriotism.

Reviews

‘Rory Carroll’s earlier book about the attempted murder of Margaret Thatcher showed him to be an exceptionally gifted storyteller, and this book confirms his talent … A terrifically readable account of a fascinating figure’ Max Hastings, The Times

‘A gripping read’ The i Paper

‘A Rebel and a Traitor takes its place beside books such as Ben Macintyre’s A Spy Among Friends and the superb A Spy Among Traitors … [It] is a rapidly paced, expert marshalling of a huge range of characters and locations, written with brio. It is a thrilling account of one of the most unpredictable, memorable and poignant figures in our history.’ Irish Times

‘Carroll entwines the two parallel stories — hunted and hunter — in a pacy, effective narrative, culminating in a thrilling interrogation at Scotland Yard… Rory Carroll has found a fresh way to tell Casement’s well-established story.’ Financial Times

About the author

Rory Carroll, currently the Guardian’s Ireland correspondent, has spent most of his career as a foreign correspondent based in Rome, Johannesburg, Baghdad, Caracas and Los Angeles. His first book, Comandante: Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela, was published in 2013. Since returning to his native Dublin in 2018 he has covered Ireland’s tangled relationship with Britain and the legacy of Northern Ireland’s Troubles – a fascination with history and narrative non-fiction that led to Killing Thatcher and now A Rebel and a Traitor.