Overworld

This gripping memoir by a former American intelligence operative is a vivid portrait of a spy at every stage of his life and career. Raised in various countries around the world as the son of an American spymaster, Larry Kolb tells how his father taught him to think, look and listen like a spy, and how a friend and colleague of his father attempted to recruit him to the CIA. Kolb declined, choosing instead to become an international businessman. His early success - in his mid-twenties he became an agent for several professional athletes, including Muhammad Ali - brought him into contact with many of the world's wealthiest and most powerful men, making him irresistible to master spy and CIA co-founder, Miles Copeland. When Copeland later tried to recruit him, Kolb accepted, and soon he was involved in covert intrigues in Beirut, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Afghanistan, the Phillipines, Nicaragua, Pakistan and India. Peopled by larger than life characters such as Adnan Khashoggi, Imelda Marcos, Rajiv Gandhi and Ronald Reagan, PEERS OF THE REALM is a real-life adventure story of the highest order which offers compelling insights into the danger, glamour and psychology of espionage - as well as an extraordinary glimpse into the real corridors of global power.