Joining me on this episode of Writers at Work is Charlie English, author of THE CIA BOOK CLUB. Its subtitle tells why I found, and I think you will find, Charlie's latest to be so fascinating: The Secret Mission to Win the Cold War with Forbidden Literature.

From its headquarters in Manhattan, the CIA Book Club secretly sent millions of banned titles, pamphlets and other reading material into the East. By the 1980s, illicit literature was so pervasive in Poland that the state censorship machine was rendered all but useless. Soon the Iron Curtain fell. As Charlie confirms with his amazing tale, books really can set us free. Charlie is a former reporter and editor for the Guardian and a fellow of the Royal Geographic Society. He's the author of three nonfiction books that demonstrate an open-minded curiosity. He'll be speaking with us from London.