New releases from The Mountains Goats, Ed O’Brien, and YHWH Nailgun
Latest editorial
Papal skulduggery
PAUL DONOVAN is fascinated by an account of the long history of Catholic Church’s involvement in espionage
SEEING EYE TO EYE: US President Meeting with Pope John Paul II during a visit to Vatican City, 1982
[Public Domain]
ANGUS REID, ANDY HEDGECOCK and MARIA DUARTE review On The Sea, A Useful Ghost, Brunello: The Gracious Visionary, and Pinocchio Unstrung
RON JACOBS enjoys a great tale, told by a US communist, of the lives of working-class New Yorkers
BRENT CUTLER searches a new history of contemporary Iran for an understanding of the Islamic Republic, finding both interesting detail and glaring omissions
MARIA DUARTE recommends the true story of the remarkable woman who sued Donald Trump for sexual assault not once, but twice
KENNY MacASKILL is disappointed by a polemical, rather than factual, account of the Lone Star State and its political path since the civil war
PAUL DONOVAN is fascinated by the lives of Charles and Mary Bagot, and the insight this biography shines on the morals of pre-Victorian society
Vatican Spies
Yvonnick Denoel, Hurst, £25
VATICAN SPIES reveals much about how the Catholic Church developed its own intelligence network, often with the help of other agencies such as the CIA, French and Italian security services.
The interactions with the mafia during World War II period at the behest of the US, and getting caught up with the Mob through various dodgy financial dealings, makes for a fascinating read.
The Catholic Church with its universal reach to 1.2 billion Catholics worldwide, connected by a network of parishes and dioceses, amounts to a spy master’s dream. On the face of it virtuous and God-serving, below the surface it is as ruthless and brutal as any other intelligence operation.
Similar stories
JOHN CALLOW introduces the work of Geoffrey Trease, who placed ordinary people at the centre of his historical fiction for children, creating adventurous stories to inspire the possibilities of social change
![SHAMELESS DISPLAY OF COERCION: Previously unreleased photos of Guantanamo captives, 2002, brought to Guantanamo Bay from Afghanistan by way of Incirlik, Turkey. [Pic: Staff Sergeant Jeremy Lock/CC]](https://msd11.gn.apc.org/sites/default/files/styles/desktop/public/2025-11/cia%20web2.jpg.webp?itok=o_Dyxu_T)
GUILLERMO THOMAS enjoys a survey of the current state of the CIA (aka Langley) from an expert and insider of sorts
After NGOs and the EU, UN condemns Germany’s crackdown on Palestine Solidarity, writes LEON WYSTRYCHOWSKI
TONY FOX invites readers to come and hear the story of the remarkable Liverpudlian International Brigader Alexander Foote