Notorious Cambridge spy Kim Philby, the former head of Britain s Soviet counterintelligence who defected to the USSR in 1963, spent his last 25 years there. In her ambivalent, equivocal memoir, his fifth wife, who married him in 1971, portrays him as "fundamentally honourable and honest," a great father and loving son-in-law, "full of joie de vivre," who "literally glowed with happiness" but, on the other hand, as self-destructive, solitary, alcoholic, as a chronic insomniac and a troubled soul plagued by doubts. Except for disclosing that her husband did "an occasional job for the KGB" during his Moscow years, her chronicle of marital domesticity sheds little light on Philby s political activities behind the Iron Curtain. Somewhat more revealing is the apologetic reminiscence by retired KGB Colonel Lyubimov, a friend of Philby s, presenting the Cambridge spymaster as a burned-out operative who failed to grasp that he was no longer a valued asset for Moscow. Included also are two hitherto unpublished autobiographical chapters by Philby himself. His chillingly matter-of-fact account of his recruitment by Soviet intelligence--and how he in turn helped recruit his Cambridge colleagues Donald Maclean and Guy Burgess--offers glimpses of a calculating, ruthless individual, in sharp contrast to the kind, gentle person evoked by his wife. Ex-CIA officer Peake s useful, scholarly bibliographical essay coolly reassesses the Philby saga by sifting the myths and distortions in a slew of books and articles. Also included are Philby s 1977 lecture to his KGB colleagues and an article he wrote on whether an agent should confess when caught (both never before published). 16 pages of photos. (May)