[…] notes and bibliography. It is hardly revisionist, though in an academic environment they obviously would appear to be. By far the most interesting selection is Andrew Lownie’s ‘Tyler Kent: isolationist or spy?’. I do not agree with all of the conclusions but Lownie proves himself to be one of the best researchers around. Stephen Dorril
[PDF file]: The Shadow Man: At the Heart of the Cambridge Spy Circle Geoff Andrews London: I B Tauris, 2016, £20, h/b This is a revelatory book that, in its own quiet, understated way, is likely to send shock waves through the historiography of British Communism. Geoff Andrews is the author of the disappointing last volume […]
[PDF file]: A Spy Alone Charles Beaumont London: Canelo, 2023, £9.99 (p/b) Robin Ramsay This is only the second novel I have reviewed in Lobster.1 The cover and the author blurb tells us that author Beaumont is a ‘former MI6 operative’. ‘Operative’? Why not ‘officer’? The author tells me the word was chosen by the publisher. […]
[…] ARNOLD-FOSTER, MARK B 16.4.20 1939-45 ROYAL NAVY 1946 DEMOBBED LT 1948 BLOCKADED IN BERLIN 1954 ADMITTED (G 4.2.80) THAT HE HAD WORKED FOR BRITISH INTELLIGENCE, SMUGGLED A SPY INTO SOVIET UNION. JOURNALIST. LATER GUARDIAN DIPLOMATIC EDITOR ARRAN, LORD ARTHUR KATTENDYKE STRANGE DAVID ARCHIBALD GORE B 5.7.10, D 23.2.83 BALLIOL COLL OXFORD 1939 ATTACHE BERNE […]
[…] over to the other side, returning to the U.S. as a spook of two masters — in the manner of Magnus Pym, the hero of A Perfect Spy. The Le Carre angle is plausibly presented — Russell relies not only on secondary sources but also on his personal interviews with assassination-linked figures such as […]
[…] According to David Leigh’s sources the MI5 officer Arthur Martin told friends before his tranfer to MI6 in November 1964, ‘I did hear that —— was a spy.’ An MI5 officer from K branch confirmed to Leigh that ‘We knew that —— was a CIA agent, or, if not an agent, at least very […]
[…] it ‘private and confidential’, as publicity could kill it.’ What this ‘action group’ did is unknown. (86) It has become quite widely accepted that Ellis was a spy for the Soviets. This story first took root in Chapman Pincher’s Their Trade is Treachery. Pincher added to it in a letter (6 May 1981) in […]
[…] Miranda Ingram, who worked with Michael Bettaney, describes working conditions and MI5 philosophy. Boring for her and for us…. Tatler (June 1984) Robert Harris reports on the spy recruitment procedures. There was some talk of prosecutions under the Official Secrets Act for naming MI5 and MI6 premises. They are: MI5 recruitment (positive vetting) – […]
