Past to Present by William Stevenson

Lyons Press, an imprint of Globe Pequot Press, is proud to announce the September 19, 2012, release of PAST TO PRESENT: A Reporter’s Story of War, Spies, People, and Politics, by William Stevenson (978-0-7627-7370-1; $27.50 hardcover).

While William Stevenson may be best known for his friendship with—and book about—Sir William Stephenson, otherwise known as Intrepid, the man whose spy network and secret diplomacy changed the course of history, the author’s own life as a British Naval fighter pilot during World War II and as a distinguished journalist and war correspondent proves equally fascinating in PAST TO PRESENT.

Always privy to top-secret intelligence, William Stevenson has led a life of international intrigue. In PAST TO PRESENT, he chronicles the major events of his life before and after World War II up to the present and his meetings with such iconic figures as Ian Fleming, Prime Minister Nehru, Ho Chi Minh, Chiang Kai-shek, Mao Tse-tung, Zhou Enlai, the young Dalai Lama, Marshal Tito, Nikita Khrushchev, and the King of Thailand along the way. From dodging the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II to become the first non-communist reporter allowed into Poland in the immediate aftermath of World War II, to learning about Sputnik in a meeting with scientists in Kiev before the West was aware the Soviets had it in the works, to new information about a CIA effort in the 1950s to assassinate China’s Premiere, Zhou Enlai (Stevenson was actually supposed to be on the plane that was blown up by a CIA-planted bomb), to new, personal information about the man called Intrepid, his escapades will leave you breathless.