ROOSEVELT AND CHURCHILL Men of Secrets

The much vaunted cooperation between Great Britain and the United States during WWII has long been due for reassessment, and this study of the intelligence services of both countries may signal its start. Stafford's close examination suggests as much competition as cooperation, for the ambitions of both leaders--Roosevelt and Churchill--and their national interests, beyond winning the war, were largely incompatible. In a forceful narration Richard McGonagle produces near lifelike imitations of the two men--the urbane, upper-Hudson Roosevelt and the gravelly, sardonic Churchill--that at times brim over with their delight in each other and their work. Underneath, however, boils a tension that always threatens to break out, as the two try to balance the competing demands of their intelligence services against common strategic interests. In a voice familiar to those of us who cut our teeth on TV documentaries like "Victory at Sea," McGonagle recreates those tense moments between Allies whose secret interests were worlds apart, yet who nonetheless assembled the most effective spy network in the history of the world. P.E.F. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine [Published: FEB/ MAR 02]