Winter In Madrid

1940. Madrid lies ruined after the Spanish Civil War. Its people are starving, it is winter, and Germany is intent on conquering Europe . Britain now stands alone whilst General Franco considers whether to abandon neutrality and enter the war.
Harry Brett, traumatized veteran of Dunkirk and now an agent of the British Secret Service, is sent to Spain to gain the trust of old schoolfriend Sandy Forsyth, who is involved in a shady - and dangerous - business that may sway Franco''s mind on whether to enter the war.
Meanwhile Barbara Clare, Sandy''s girlfriend and ex-Red Cross nurse, is engaged in her own secret mission - to find her former lover, Bernie Piper, a passionate Communist in the International Brigade who vanished on the bloody battlefields of the Jarma.
A tale of love, hate, intrigue, treachery, subversion and the selfishness of the classes - upper to lower, is deftly told in this gripping story that unfolds in the poverty and despair of post-Civil War Spain . The lives of the protagonists are frighteningly intertwined both through the present and the past, and it is these relationships that pull the reader along through the horrors and tensions that unfold.
Told with panache, written with an accuracy of history, Sansom has written a novel that deserves reading and recommending.