
A Quiet Company of Dangerous Men
The Forgotten British Special Operations Soldiers of World War II
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Narrated by:
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George Weightman
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By:
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Shannon Monaghan
About this listen
The untold story of four special operations officers who fought together behind enemy lines across multiple theaters of World War II, and then continued to serve, officially and unofficially, for decades after in the hottest parts of the Cold War
There have always been special warriors; Achilles and his Myrmidons are the obvious classical examples. What we now think of as “special operations,” however, were born in World War II, and one of the earliest and most exciting units formed was Britain's SOE. In the early years of the war, when Britain stood alone against the Nazis, Winston Churchill put them on a mission to “set Europe ablaze”: to foment local revolt, to gather intelligence, to blow up bridges, and to do anything that could help to disrupt the Axis cause. A Quiet Company of Dangerous Men follows four SOE officers who distinguished themselves in this fight: the Spanish Civil War veteran Peter Kemp, the demolitions expert David Smiley, the born guerrilla leader Billy McLean, and the political natural Julian Amery.
With new and extensive research, including unprecedented access to private family papers that reveal the men's unbreakable bonds and vibrant personalities, Shannon Monaghan has uncovered a story of war in the twentieth century that, due to the secretive nature of the SOE’s work, has remained largely unknown. A Quiet Company of Dangerous Men is a thrilling and inspiring story of four remarkable men who, through sheer determination and daring, as well as unwavering friendship and loyalty, fought for a better world.
* This audiobook edition includes a downloadable PDF containing the Cast of Characters and Maps from the printed book.
©2024 Shannon Monaghan (P)2024 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
"A well-told tale that sets the fictional worlds of Ian Fleming and John le Carré in real-life perspective."—Kirkus Reviews
“A Quiet Company of Dangerous Men is a thoroughly researched book that brings to life some of the incredible personalities who pioneered special operations for the SOE. It sheds new light on how, long before D-Day, the British were taking the fight far behind enemy lines in Nazi-occupied Europe.”—Sam Kleiner, author of The Flying Tigers
"The heroic exploits of Britain’s Special Operations soldiers finally receive in A Quiet Company of Dangerous Men a comprehensive and objective study, rich in humanity, anecdote, and, above all, relevance to a world once more in the throes of The Great Game.”—Richard Bassett, author of Hitler’s Spy Chief
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- Unabridged
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For the doomed stand American forces made in the Philippines at the start of World War II, two generals received their country’s highest military award, the Medal of Honor. One was the charismatic and controversial Douglas MacArthur, whose orders forced him to leave his soldiers on the islands to starvation and surrender but whose vow to return echoed around the globe. The other was the gritty Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright, who became a hero to the troops whose fate he insisted on sharing even when it meant becoming the highest-ranking American prisoner of the Japanese.
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Wonderful book
- By Scott Brimer on 06-09-25
By: Jonathan Horn
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The Age of Revolutions
- And the Generations Who Made It
- By: Nathan Perl-Rosenthal
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 16 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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The revolutions that raged across Europe and the Americas over seven decades, from 1760 to 1825, created the modern world. Revolutionaries shattered empires, toppled social hierarchies, and birthed a world of republics. But old injustices lingered on and the powerful engines of revolutionary change created new and insidious forms of inequality. In The Age of Revolutions, historian Nathan Perl-Rosenthal offers the first narrative history of this entire era.
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The Invisible Spy
- Churchill's Rockefeller Center Spy Ring and America’s First Secret Agent of World War II
- By: Thomas Maier
- Narrated by: Stephen Graybill
- Length: 12 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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As a tough but smart Italian American kid, Ernest Cuneo played Ivy League football at Columbia University and was in the old Brooklyn Dodgers NFL franchise before becoming a city hall lawyer and “Brain Trust'' aide to President Roosevelt. He was on the payroll of national radio columnist Walter Winchell and mingled with the famous and powerful. But his status as a spy remained a secret, hiding in plain sight. During this time, Cuneo began a close friendship with British spy Ian Fleming and helped inspire Fleming's James Bond novels.
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Incredible read
- By Customer007 on 06-12-25
By: Thomas Maier
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Taking Manhattan
- The Extraordinary Events That Created New York and Shaped America
- By: Russell Shorto
- Narrated by: Russell Shorto
- Length: 11 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1664, England decided to invade the Dutch-controlled city of New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island. Charles II and his brother, the Duke of York, had dreams of empire, and their archrivals, the Dutch, were in the way. But Richard Nicolls, the military officer who led the English flotilla bent on destruction, changed his strategy once he encountered Peter Stuyvesant, New Netherland’s canny director general.
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I really appreciated how the author continually related the past to what we see today.
- By Jaelyn Dean on 05-22-25
By: Russell Shorto
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The Illegals
- Russia's Most Audacious Spies and Their Century-Long Mission to Infiltrate the West
- By: Shaun Walker
- Narrated by: Paul Thornley
- Length: 14 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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More than a century ago, the new Bolshevik government began sending Soviet citizens abroad as deep-cover spies, training them to pose as foreign aristocrats, merchants, and students. Over time, this grew into the most ambitious espionage program in history. Many intelligence agencies use undercover operatives, but the KGB was the only one to go to such lengths, spending years training its spies in language and etiquette, and sending them abroad on missions that could last for decades. These spies were known as “illegals.”
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Great Story about Espionage, Shame He Copes Still
- By Saurabh Seth on 07-09-25
By: Shaun Walker
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Paddy Mayne
- Lt Col Blair 'Paddy' Mayne, 1 SAS Regiment
- By: Hamish Ross
- Narrated by: Alan Turkington
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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‘Paddy’ Mayne was one of the most outstanding special forces leaders of the Second World War. Hamish Ross’s authoritative study follows Mayne from solicitor and a rugby international to troop commander in the Commandos and then the SAS, whose leader he later became and whose annals he graced, winning the DSO and three bars, the Croix de Guerre and the Légion d’Honneur.
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Amazing details!
- By Sam on 05-07-25
By: Hamish Ross
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Buckley
- The Life and the Revolution That Changed America
- By: Sam Tanenhaus
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 31 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Majestic in its sweep, rich in ideas and argument, and packed with news and revelations, Buckley vividly captures its subject in all his facets and phases—founding editor of National Review, the 20th century’s most influential political journal; syndicated columnist and TV debater; ally of Joseph McCarthy and Barry Goldwater; mentor to Ronald Reagan; wisecracking candidate for mayor of New York; and bestselling novelist and memoirist.
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A life beyond
- By M. Consol on 07-02-25
By: Sam Tanenhaus
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Operation Biting
- The 1942 Parachute Assault to Capture Hitler's Radar
- By: Max Hastings
- Narrated by: Max Hastings, John Hopkins
- Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Operation Biting retells this dramatic operation through a gallery of amazing characters from Winston Churchill, who promoted the raid, to Lord Mountbatten, who commanded Combined Operations, to the brave unsung commandos who fought their way through enemy territory. A cliffhanger of a story that ratchets the suspense to the last moment, Operation Biting sheds new light on an exciting and little-known chapter of the Second World War.
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Another Tour de Force by Sir Max Hastings
- By JOHN DAVIS on 04-20-25
By: Max Hastings
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Henry V
- The Astonishing Triumph of England's Greatest Warrior King
- By: Dan Jones
- Narrated by: Dan Jones
- Length: 14 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Henry V reigned over England for only nine years and four months and died at the age of just thirty-five, but he looms over the landscape of the late Middle Ages and beyond. The victor of Agincourt, he is remembered as the acme of kingship, a model to be closely imitated by his successors. William Shakespeare deployed Henry V as a study in youthful folly redirected to sober statesmanship. For one modern medievalist, Henry was, quite simply, “the greatest man who ever ruled England.”
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Amazing Book & Fantastic Storyteller
- By L. Reilly on 11-26-24
By: Dan Jones
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The British Are Coming
- The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777
- By: Rick Atkinson
- Narrated by: George Newbern, Rick Atkinson - introduction
- Length: 12 hrs and 54 mins
- Abridged
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Abridged edition: Rick Atkinson, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning An Army at Dawn, has long been admired for his deeply researched, stunningly vivid narrative histories. Now he turns his attention to a new war, and in the initial volume of the Revolution Trilogy he recounts the first 21 months of America’s violent war for independence. From the battles at Lexington and Concord in spring 1775 to those at Trenton and Princeton in winter 1777, American militiamen and then the ragged Continental Army take on the world’s most formidable fighting force.
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Good book, Bad reader.
- By Sandy McCall on 08-01-21
By: Rick Atkinson
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SAS Great Escapes
- Seven Great Escapes Made by Real Second World War Heroes
- By: Damien Lewis
- Narrated by: Leighton Pugh
- Length: 9 hrs and 44 mins
- Original Recording
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The finest fighting force in the world. Escape. Evade. Survive. Repeat. Seven gripping tales of overcoming the impossible. Arguably the finest special forces troops of the Second World War, the SAS was the jewel in the British military crown. But the near-impossible nature of their heroic missions sometimes left them trapped behind enemy lines, the enemy closing and forced to endure the unendurable. But the unendurable is all in a day’s work for these magnificent seven. Incredible odds. Outstanding bravery. Real adventure.
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No movie can compete
- By J.Brock on 06-09-21
By: Damien Lewis
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The Siege
- A Six-Day Hostage Crisis and the Daring Special-Forces Operation That Shocked the World
- By: Ben Macintyre
- Narrated by: Ben Macintyre
- Length: 14 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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As the American hostage crisis in Iran boiled into its seventh month in the spring of 1980, six heavily armed gunman barged into the Iranian embassy in London, taking twenty-six hostages. What followed over the next six days was an increasingly tense standoff, one that threatened at any moment to spill into a bloodbath.
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Another brilliant book by MacIntyre
- By ian on 09-29-24
By: Ben Macintyre
Great stories
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Bravery
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As hard as I tried to like this book, I stopped with 5 hours remaining. Rather than a coherent narrative, this seems more a series of vignettes linked by having main characters intersect at points.
Certainly the idea of the book is one of exceptional individuals and the beginnings of SOE. It just did not seem to come together or move in a direction that impelled me to continue. In fact, at one point I fell asleep listening and when I awakened did not perceive that I had missed anything.
[Having one long section focusing on an errant brother seemed a non-sequitur and did not help me develop a sense of the main character.]
It is hard to create an overarching narrative premised on the challenges of small unit organization and combat actions. I am sure each vignette would have made a great short story.
Disappointing
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