Akadémiai Kiadó

"Chocolate and Chess" is a Holocaust story with a twist that shocked even Elie Wiesel, a Cold War story, with spy vs. spy intrigue, and intellectual story and, alas, also very much a human story.

It reads like a thriller, but it is the true tale of Imre Lakatos, the brilliant philosopher of the London School of Economics, who was a mystery to colleagues, friends and lovers - and to Britain's MI5.

Surviving the Holocaust, he wanted to start anew and devoted his energies to building the Hungarian Communist Party. Surviving torture and incarceration by his comrades, he left for England for another fresh start.

But the secret services of countries on both sides of the Cold War divide remained interested in him and England denied him citizenship despite the backing of esteemed colleagues like Karl Popper.

Based on previously classified Western counterintelligence and Hungarian secret police archives, this book endeavors to fill gaps in the knowledge of both cognoscenti and counterspies.

About the author

Alexander Emmerich Bandy was born in Quedlinburg, Germany, in 1945.

His childhood years were spent in Budapest and Vancouver. He held a number of blue-collar jobs and for a time was a community organizer. He also worked as an editor at a publishing house and, before his retirement, was an Associated Press correspondent, "with a ringside seat to observe the collapse of communism and its aftermath."