Secrets of My Life: Vintner, Prisoner, Soldier, Spy by Peter M. F. Sichel
Secrets of My Life: Vintner, Prisoner, Soldier, Spy by Peter M. F. Sichel
Thanks to Heidi Harmon of Bohlsen Group, I am giving away one print copy of Secrets of My Life by Peter M. F. Sichel
Description of My Life by Peter M. F. Sichel
Peter M. F. Sichel, a fourth-generation wine merchant, found the path he was destined to walk interrupted by the Nazis while growing up as a Jew in Germany. He moved to France in 1939 but was imprisoned as an enemy alien at the outbreak of World War II. When he was released, he hid in the Pyrenees before reaching the United States in 1941.
After joining the Army, he served with the U.S. Office of Strategic Services, sending spies into Germany, before becoming a senior official with the Central Intelligence Agency, where he served in key positions in Berlin, Hong Kong, and Washington.
In this memoir–which needed to be cleared by the CIA–he describes how the Nazis took over Germany, the odd attitude of German Jews to being Jewish, the fault lines in U.S. intelligence during the Cold War, and the life lessons he learned in the wine business.
Praise for My Life by Peter M. F. Sichel
“Peter Sichel was a true insider during the heyday of the CIA during the late 1940s and 1950s. From Berlin to Hong Kong, he served in a global secret war that was, by turns, gallant, necessary, dangerous, and wrongheaded. … His memoir is clear-eyed, charming, and fascinating.”
–Evan Thomas, author of The Very Best Men: The Daring Early Years of the CIA
“Peter Sichel is an iconic figure in the history of wine. With his European upbringing and early years in the CIA, his story is both fascinating and compelling. His success with Blue Nun is nothing short of classic marketing.”-Marvin R. Shanken, Editor & Publisher, Wine Spectator
About Peter M. F. Sichel
Peter M. F. Sichel was educated in Germany and England and fled France in 1941 to end up in the United States. He spent seventeen years with the U.S. Office of Strategic Services and the Central Intelligence Agency in some of the top hot spots of the Cold War before joining his family wine business.
Before publishing “The Secrets of My Life: Vintner, Prisoner, Soldier, Spy”, Sichel wrote a basic guide to wines on the American market in 1975 called, “Which Wine”. He currently resides in New York City with his wife, Stella.
Giveaway of My Life by Peter M. F. Sichel
This giveaway is open to Canada and the U.S. and ends on May 20, 2016 at midnight pacific time. Entries are accepted via Rafflecopter only.
