Book Read Free

M

Page 35

by Henry Hemming


  1  ‘aim and ambition’: History Sheet, 17 January, 1938, KV 2/1022.

  Chapter 29: Miss X

  1  ‘Sample of the tempting’: ‘Miss X’, Time Magazine, 28 March, 1938.

  2  ‘Britain’s counter-espionage’: ‘Foreigner Named by British Agent,’ Baltimore Sun, 12 February, 1938.

  3  ‘stylish’: ‘Stylish “Miss X” Tells of Trapping British Arms Spy’, Washington Post, 8 February, 1938.

  4  ‘black two-piece’: ‘Girl Tells of Net in British Spy Case’, Atlanta Constitution, 8 February, 1938.

  5  ‘slim’, ‘blonde’: ‘Woman Turns Spy to Foil Plot to Steal British Arms Secrets’, Atlanta Constitution, 4 February, 1938.

  6  ‘Fair-haired’: ‘Aircraft and Gun Plans’, Manchester Guardian, 4 February, 1938.

  7  ‘exceptionally pretty’: ‘Miss X’, Time Magazine, 28 March, 1938.

  8  ‘a real spy hunt’: Sam Brewer, ‘Joins with Red Plotters, Then Tips War Office’, Chicago Tribune, 4 February, 1938.

  9  ‘many fictional trials’: T. J. Hamilton, ‘British Spy Case Tinged with Irony’, New York Times, 13 February, 1938.

  10  ‘Was there ever’: Editorial, ‘Miss X’, Atlanta Constitution, 12 February, 1938.

  11  ‘asked her if she’: Quoted in Masters, Man Who Was M, 69.

  12  ‘Big, blue eyes’: H. J. J. Sargint, ‘Spy Fighters Guard Name of “Miss X”’, Atlanta Constitution, 10 February, 1938.

  13  ‘would not be surprised’: 23 March, 1938, KV 2/1793.

  14  ‘was whisked away’: ‘“Miss X” Describes Capture of Spies’, New York Times, 8 February, 1938.

  15  ‘I wanted to get’: Masters, Man Who Was M, 72–73.

  16  ‘nasty fingers’: S. S. Birch, ‘Britain’s Bravest Girl Traps Russ Master Spy’, Telegram, 23 April, 1949.

  17  ‘Spy Fighters Guard’: H. J. J. Sargint, ‘Spy Fighters Guard Name of “Miss X”’, Atlanta Constitution, 10 February, 1938.

  18  ‘Miss G’: KV 2/2159/52a; Washington Post, 4 February, 1938.

  19  ‘the comparatively small’: ‘Charges Under Official Secrets Act’, Manchester Guardian, 15 March, 1938.

  20  ‘with the sole and vulgar’: Ibid.

  21  ‘I do not propose’: Ibid.

  22  ‘the closest enquiries’: KV 2/2159/52a.

  23  ‘leading pre-war penetration’: Andrew, Defence of the Realm, 220.

  Chapter 30: Mona

  1  ‘An organised “spy hunt”’: KV 3/391/217a.

  2  ‘the most exhaustive investigations’: KV 3/234/11a.

  3  ‘Honours’: Speech Day, Stamford Girls’ High School, 1907 and 1910.

  4  ‘This girl is a rather’: Security Services Archive quoted in Andrew, Defence of the Realm, 182.

  5  ‘it is also certain’: Ibid.

  6  ‘Party work’ was so important: Ibid., 183.

  7  ‘Suppose you can draw’: Knight, Be a Nature Detective, 16.

  8  ‘very small feet’: Geoffrey Elliott, Gentleman Spymaster (London: Methuen, 2011), 73.

  9  ‘I’ve been rather’: Burke, The Spy Who Came in from the Co-op, 2.

  Chapter 31: ‘What a Very Beautiful View’

  1  ‘sooner or later’: Quoted in Martin Pugh, We Danced All Night (London: Vintage, 2009), 441.

  2  ‘Though willing to work’: KV 2/1280/1.

  3  ‘an extremely level-headed’: KV 2/1280/6.

  4  ‘as a sort of’: KV 2/1280/8.

  5  ‘financial starvation’: KV 4/227/1a.

  6  ‘the Ghetto descendants’: E. G. Mandeville-Roe, Financiers (London: Steven Books, 2002), 4–5.

  7  ‘no officer can efficiently’: KV 4/227/1a.

  8  ‘I shall always endeavour’: Knight to Roberts, 12 November, 1934, Eric Roberts Papers.

  9  ‘be at the beck-and-call’: KV 4/227/1a.

  10  ‘The officer will’: Ibid.

  11  ‘Joyce’s loyalty can be’: KV 2/245/62x.

  12  ‘but I am convinced’: Ibid.

  13  ‘For God’s sake’: KV 2/245/96e.

  14  ‘personal introductions to’: KV 5/2/51x.

  15  ‘I must admit’: 15 August, 1939, KV 5/2/135b.

  16  ‘Hitler seemed’: Ibid.

  17  ‘very honoured one’: Ibid.

  Chapter 32: Crisis

  1  ‘like waiting a doctor’s verdict’: Virginia Woolf, 28 August, 1939, The Diary of Virginia Woolf, Vol. 5, ed. Anne Olivier Bell (London: Hogarth, 1985), 231.

  2  ‘excellent work’: KV 2/1280/113.

  3  ‘highly regarded by the Germans’: B1a to SIS, 7 January, 1944, KV 2/1278.

  4  ‘I have been able to’: KV 3/393/327d.

  5  ‘very clear’: William Joyce, Twilight Over England (Berlin: Internationaler Verlag, 1940), 11.

  6  ‘Defence Regulations would’: J. A. Cole, Lord Haw-Haw (London: Faber, 1987), 86.

  7  ‘the biggest danger’: Bill Grieg quoted in Farndale, Haw-Haw, 180.

  8  ‘secret service’ officer: KV 2/245/179x.

  9  ‘did not rate democracy’: Christopher Lee, ‘M Is for Maxwell Knight’, BBC Radio 4, broadcast on 27 January, 2009.

  10  ‘if I had to choose’: E. M. Forster, ‘What I Believe’, Two Cheers for Democracy (London: Edward Arnold, 1951), 68.

  Chapter 33: Mrs Mackie Investigates

  1  ‘Gloomy, darkened and lifeless’: Gabriel Gorodetsky, ed., The Maisky Diaries (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2015), 225.

  2  ‘One begins to wonder’: Liddell Diaries, 1 December, 1939, KV 4/185.

  3  ‘called upon to show’: Liddell Diaries, 30 August, 1939, KV 4/185.

  4  ‘old-fashioned liberalism’: Liddell Diaries, 25 May, 1940, KV 4/186.

  5  ‘Our tradition is that’: F. H. Hinsley and C. A. G. Simkins, British Intelligence in the Second World War, Vol. 4 (London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1990), 57–58.

  6  ‘laughable’: Guy Liddell, Memorandum, 1942, KV 4/170.

  7  ‘The liberty of the subject’: Liddell Diaries, 25 May, 1940, KV 4/186.

  8  ‘I telephoned to Mrs Ramsay’: KV 2/902/62a.

  9  ‘If you could help’: Ibid.

  10  ‘I made no promise’: Ibid.

  11  ‘that instructions have now’: KV 3/393/327c.

  12  ‘there was no question’: KV 2/245/179x.

  Chapter 34: The Fashion Designer

  1  ‘Yes, I think when’: KV 2/677/141a.

  2  Duke of Wellington, Lord Carnegie: The Red Book, 1369/1.

  3  ‘a staunch Nazi’: KV 2/840/76x.

  4  ‘displaying pro-Nazi’: KV 2/840/4c.

  5  ‘a fine example’: Quoted in Bryan Clough, State Secrets (Hove: Hideaway, 2005), 109.

  6  ‘suddenly immobilised’: Miller, One Girl’s War, 50.

  7  ‘there was little difference’: KV 2/1343/84a.

  Chapter 35: The Mystic

  1  ‘ludicrous’: HO 283/40/22.

  2  ‘several aristocratic Russian’: KV 2/2258/92b.

  3  ‘I noticed that’: KV 2/902/62a.

  4  ‘the Hon. John’: Adam Sisman, John Le Carré (London: Bloomsbury, 2015), 200.

  5  ‘set himself the task’: KV 4/227/1a.

  6  ‘a thing much to be desired’: KV 4/331/9.

  7  ‘in the throes of’: Miller, One Girl’s War, 52.

  8  ‘It is difficult to imagine’: KV 4/227/1a.

  9  ‘practically three hours’: KV 2/677/141a.

  10  ‘the little Storm Trooper’: KV 2/841/140c.

  11  ‘Anna Wolkoff used to tell’: KV 2/8839/36a.

  12  ‘as it was considered’: KV 2/1212/19a.

  13  ‘Anna Wolkoff claims’: Ibid.

&nb
sp; 14  ‘a certain subject’: KV 2/840

  15  ‘Wolkoff is in contact’: KV 2/840/14a.

  16  ‘If by any chance’: KV 2/840/11x.

  17  ‘the character and temperament’: KV 4/227/1a.

  18  ‘Wolkoff, like many Russians’: Ibid.

  19  ‘to a remarkable degree’: KV 4/227/1a.

  20  Now he planned to harness: Ibid.

  21  ‘suitably edited and embellished’: Ibid.

  22  ‘This is not necessarily due’: Ibid.

  Chapter 36: A Smokescreen

  1  ‘No war was being’: Quoted in Pugh, We Danced All Night, 443.

  2  ‘our time is approaching’: HO 45/24895/3-4.

  3  Fellowship of the Services: Liddell Diaries, 11 March, 1940, KV 4/186.

  4  ‘that Geary was trying’: HO 45/23775.

  5  ‘young man employed’: KV 4/227/1a.

  6  ‘that this man is’: KV 2/840/20d.

  7  ‘It was a real pleasure’: KV 2/840/20a.

  8  ‘with thanks for’: Ibid.

  9  ‘I hope I am right’: Ibid.

  10  ‘Dear Captain King’: KV 2/840/20cdd.

  11  ‘pedigree’: KV 2/902/79a.

  12  ‘She had some idea’: KV 2/543/38x.

  13  ‘John Kent’: KV 2/543/1ab.

  Chapter 37: A Letter to an Old Friend

  1  ‘one of those intensely’: Malcolm Muggeridge, Chronicles of Wasted Time, Vol. 2 (London: Collins, 1973), 108.

  2  ‘The sooner you shoot’: KV 2/543/37d.

  3  ‘actively taking part’: Rex v. Kent, MS 310/1/1/10.

  4  ‘Part of my function’: Interview with Robert Harris, BBC Newsnight, 3 December, 1982.

  5  ‘bulky’: KV 2/543/1z.

  6  ‘do incalculable harm’: KV 4/227/1a.

  7  ‘were not being adequately informed’: Rex v. Kent, MS 310/1/1/10.

  8  ‘a smart woman’: Quoted in John Costello, Ten Days to Destiny (New York: William Morrow, 1991), 111.

  9  ‘pleasant, politically stupid’: KV 2/840/69a.

  10  ‘if she would like’: Ibid.

  11  ‘Herr W. B. Joyce’: KV 2/543/43x

  12  ‘Why didn’t you tell’: KV 2/902/62a.

  13  ‘I replied that I’: Ibid.

  14  ‘I explained that I’: Ibid.

  15  ‘I replied that it might’: Ibid.

  16  ‘a single sheet of quarto’: Ibid.

  17  ‘She resealed the letter’: Ibid.

  18  ‘Certain arrangements were then’: KV 4/227/1a.

  Chapter 38: Carlyle

  1  ‘May I have this?’: Rex v. Kent MS 310/1/1/10

  2  ‘our principal agent’: KV 4/227/1a.

  3  ‘confidential information about’: KV 2/840/29b.

  4  ‘information which [he] had’: KV 4/227/1a.

  5  ‘It seems urgently necessary’: Ibid.

  6  ‘close to collapse’: Andrew, Defence of the Realm, 222.

  7  ‘strongly of the opinion’: Liddell Diaries, 7 May, 1940, KV 4/186.

  Chapter 39: Victory at All Costs

  1  ‘It will be interesting’: Liddell Diaries, 11 May, 1940, KV 4/186.

  2  ‘An elephant keeper’: Liddell Diaries, 12 May, 1940, KV 4/186.

  3  ‘the slightest doubt’: Ibid.

  4  ‘very concerned’: Ibid.

  5  ‘severely strained’: Hinsley and Simkins, British Intelligence in the Second World War, 39.

  6  ‘It was a joke’: Rex v. Kent, MS 310/1/1/10.

  7  ‘name like a tin’: KV 2/841/140c.

  8  fifty ‘of your older destroyers’: Quoted in James Leutze, ‘The Secret of the Churchill–Roosevelt Correspondence: September 1939–May 1940’, Journal of Contemporary History 10 (1975): 465–491.

  9  ‘It is understood’: May 16, 1940, KV 2/840/49a.

  10  ‘unimpeachable source’: Hans Georg von Mackensen quoted in Strix, ‘The Golden Egg’, The Spectator, 26 October, 1956, 17.

  11  ‘We said that as a’: Liddell Diaries, 17 May, 1940, KV 4/186.

  12  ‘Action should also be’: CAB 65/7, (40) 139.

  13  ‘During wartime’: KV 4/227/1a.

  14  ‘profoundly shocked’: Rex v. Kent, MS 310/1/1/10.

  15  ‘will act with great care’: KV 2/543/8a.

  Chapter 40: The Raid

  1  ‘Captain M. King’: Quoted in Paul Willetts, Rendez-vous at the Russian Tea Rooms (London: Constable, 2015), 471.

  2  ‘the news had been’: Liddell Diaries, 22 May, 1940, KV 4/186.

  3  ‘old-fashioned poacher’: Maxwell Knight, The Senses of Animals (London: Museum Press, 1963), 106.

  4  ‘M certainly never minded’: Miller, One Girl’s War, 106.

  5  ‘examined’ ‘many’: KV 2/545/128a.

  6  ‘in the event of its being’: KV 2/840/57c.

  7  ‘one would not expect you’: KV 2/543/22a.

  8  ‘what the suspect says’: Knight, Gunmen’s Holiday, 258.

  Chapter 41: The Meeting

  1  ‘M. explained that this’: Liddell Diaries, 21 May, 1940, KV 4/186.

  2  ‘M explained to him’: Ibid.

  3  ‘considerably shaken’: Ibid.

  4  ‘our policy with regard to’: Liddell Diaries, 12 June, 1940, KV 4/186.

  5  ‘It seems that the Prime Minister’: Guy Liddell quoted in Hinsley and Simkins, British Intelligence in the Second World War, 52.

  6  ‘mortified’ by the extent: Hugh Trevor-Roper, The Secret World (London: I. B. Tauris, 2014), 133.

  7  ‘great contact’: Ex-MI5 officer quoted in Masters, Man Who Was M, 162.

  8  ‘I’d like to impress on you’: KV 2/1221/44a.

  Chapter 42: The Trial

  1  ‘almost a major catastrophe’: Fred L. Israel, ed., The War Diary of Breckinridge Long (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1966), 113.

  2  ‘might implicate the chief’: Ibid., 114.

  3  looking ‘dapper’: ‘Diplomat and Woman on Secrets Charges’, Daily Sketch, 25 October, 1940.

  4  ‘complimented each of the two’: KV 4/227/1a.

  5  ‘congratulated all the agents’: Ibid.

  6  ‘The lawyer told me’: KV 2/839/36a.

  7  ‘The real reason why’: KV 2/2474/142.

  8  ‘The agent provocateur’: Quoted in Nicholas Hiley and Julian Putkowski, ‘A Postscript on P. M.S.2’, Intelligence and National Security 3, no. 2 (April 1988).

  9  ‘In a very mild sense’: Liddell Diaries, 4 October, 1943, KV 4/192.

  10  ‘The duties of a Security Service’: Vernon Kell, Vernon Kell Papers, PP/MCR/120 Reel 1.

  Chapter 43: Knight’s Black Agents

  1  ‘actively ran and controlled’: J. C. Masterman, The Double-Cross System (Guilford, CT: Lyons, 2000) 3.

  2  ‘was acquired in the school’: KV 4/88/2a.

  3  ‘The only thing to do’: Liddell Diaries, 8 August, 1940, KV 4/186.

  4  ‘I was given permission’: KV 4/227/1a.

  5  ‘deplorable, both from the sex’: Liddell Diaries, 28 March, 1944, KV 4/193.

  6  ‘M’s attitude to paperwork’: Miller, One Girl’s War, 66.

  7  ‘laxity of control’: Liddell Diaries, 25 March, 1944, KV 4/193.

  8  ‘tremendous leader’: Quoted by Masters, Man Who Was M, 101.

  9  ‘We adored him’: Ibid., 146–147.

  10  ‘clucked round like a mother’: Ibid., 147.

  11  ‘held in some awe’: Nigel West, MI5 (London: Triad Granada, 1983), 154.

  12  ‘an explorer of world-wide’: KV 4/227/1a.

  13  ‘present as a treasonable conversation’: Liddell Diaries, 18 January, 1942, KV 4/189.
r />   14  ‘had become very uneasy’: Quoted in Jeremy Lewis, Shades of Greene (London: Vintage, 2011), 297.

  15  ‘what is fatal in’: Knight, Be a Nature Detective, 7.

  16  ‘if you are going to tell’: Miller, One Girl’s War, 34.

  17  ‘a low point’: Ex-MI5 officer, email correspondence with author, January 2016.

  18  ‘I have unlimited trust’: KV 2/899/54b.

  19  ‘were the favourite topic’: W. J. West, Truth Betrayed (London: Duckworth, 1987), 216–217.

  20  ‘That boy will either do’: Quoted in Farndale, Haw-Haw, 48.

  Chapter 44: The Comintern Is Not Dead

  1  ‘In dealing with Communism’: KV 4/227/1a.

  2  ‘The Russians are very patient’: Derek Tangye, The Way to Minack (Bath: Cedric Chivers, 1979), 247.

  3  ‘perhaps the best informed’: KV 3/397/454a.

  4  ‘He was convinced’: Harry Smith, interview with author, London, January 2016.

  5  ‘Neither Hollis nor I’: Liddell Diaries, 6 October, 1942, KV 4/190.

  6  ‘In our insularity’: Trevor-Roper, Secret World, 80–81.

  7  ‘bewildered when faced by’: Tangye, Way to Minack, 183.

  8  ‘the old cloak and dagger’: Liddell Diaries, 24 October, 1944, KV 4/195.

  9  ‘the most successful penetration agent’: Andrew, Defence of the Realm, 401.

  10  ‘part of the furniture’: Security Service Archive quoted in Andrew, Defence of the Realm, 401.

  11  ‘Pied Piper’: Quoted in Sisman, John Le Carré, 130.

  12  ‘a tweedy, unscalable English’: Le Carré, A Perfect Spy, 273.

  13  ‘a handsome English warlord’: Ibid., 277.

  14  ‘was country stock’: Ibid., 212.

  15  ‘He was as broad as’: Ibid., 72.

  16  ‘its retreat into bureaucracy’: Ibid., 214.

  17  ‘desk jockeys’: Ibid., 236.

  18  ‘like an old grey bird’: Ibid., 306.

 

‹ Prev