A Spy Among Friends

by Ben MacIntyre

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  — With My Little Eye: Observations Along the Way (Norwich, 1993)

  Foote, Alexander, Handbook for Spies (London, 1949)

  Gilbert, Martin, Winston S. Churchill, Vol. 6: Finest Hour, 1939–1941 (London, 1983)

  Hale, Don, The Final Dive: The Life and Death of Buster Crabb (London, 2007)

  Hamrick, S.J., Deceiving the Deceivers: Kim Philby, Donald Maclean, and Guy Burgess (New Haven, CT, 2004)

  Harris, Tomás, Garbo: the Spy Who Saved D-Day, introduction by Mark Seaman (London, 2004)

  Harrison, Edward, The Young Kim Philby: Soviet Spy and British Intelligence Officer (Exeter, 2012)

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  — Overlord: D-Day and the Battle for Normandy, 1944 (London, 1984)

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  Hermiston, Roger, The Greatest Traitor: The Secret Lives of Agent George Blake (London, 2013)

  Hersh, Burton, The Old Boys: The American Elite and the Origins of the CIA (New York, 1992)

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  Holzman, Michael, James Jesus Angleton, the CIA, and the Craft of Counterintelligence (Boston, 2008)

  Horne, Alistair, But What do you Actually Do? A Literary Vagabondage (London, 2011)

  Jeffery, Keith, MI6: The History of the Secret Intelligence Service 1909–1949 (London, 2010)

  Kahn, David, Hitler’s Spies: German Military Intelligence in World War II (New York, 2000)

  Knightley, Phillip, The Master Spy: The Story of Kim Philby (London, 1988)

  — The Second Oldest Profession (London, 1986)

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  Liddell, G., The Guy Liddell Diaries, 1939–1945, Vols. I and II, ed. Nigel West (London, 2005)

  Lycett, Andrew, Ian Fleming (London, 1996)

  Mangold, Tom, Cold Warrior: James Jesus Angleton – CIA’s Master Spy Hunter (London, 1991)

  Martin, David C., Wilderness of Mirrors: Intrigue, Deception, and the Secrets that Destroyed Two of the Cold War’s Most Important Agents (Guilford, CT, 2003)

  Modin, Yuri, My Five Cambridge Friends: Burgess, Maclean, Philby, Blunt, and Cairncross by Their KGB Controller (New York, 1995)

  Morgan, Ted, A Covert Life: Jay Lovestone: Communist, Anti-Communist, and Spymaster (New York, 1999)

  Muggeridge, Malcolm, Chronicles of Wasted Time, Vols. I and II (London, 1973)

  Page, Bruce, David Leitch and Phillip Knightley, Philby: The Spy Who Betrayed a Generation (London, 1968)

  Paine, Lauran, The Abwehr: German Military Intelligence in World War II (London, 1984)

  Philby, Eleanor, The Spy I Loved (London, 1968)

  Philby, Kim, My Silent War: The Autobiography of a Spy (London, 1968)

  Philby, Rufina, Mikhail Lyubimov and Hayden Peake, The Private Life of Kim Philby: The Moscow Years (London, 1999)

  Pincher, Chapman, Treachery: Betrayals, Blunders and Cover-Ups: Six Decades of Espionage (London, 2012)

  Poretsky, Elisabeth K., Our Own People: A Memoir of ‘Ignace Reiss’ and His Friends (Oxford, 1969)

  Pugh, Marshall, Commander Crabb (London, 1956)

  Read, Anthony and David Fisher, Colonel Z: The Secret Life of a Master of Spies (London, 1985)

  — Operation Lucy: Most Secret Spy Ring of the Second World War (London, 1981)

  Rose, Kenneth, Elusive Rothschild: The Life of Victor, Third Baron (London, 2003)

  Rubin, Barry, Istanbul Intrigues (New York, 1989)

  Seale, Patrick and Maureen McConville, Philby: The Long Road to Moscow (London, 1973)

  Sisman, Adam, Hugh Trevor-Roper: The Biography (London, 2011)

  Solomon, Flora and Barnet Litvinoff, Baku to Baker Street: The Memoirs of Flora Solomon (London, 1984)

  Trento, Joseph J., The Secret History of the CIA (New York, 2001)

  Trevor-Roper, Hugh R., The Philby Affair: Espionage, Treason, and Secret Services (London, 1968)

  Weiner, Tim, Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA (London, 2007)

  West, Nigel, At Her Majesty’s Secret Service: The Chiefs of Britain’s Intelligence Agency, MI6 (London, 2006)

  — Mask: MI5’s Penetration of the Communist Party of Great Britain (London, 2005)

  — MI5: British Security Service Operations 1909–45 (London, 1981)

  — Venona: The Greatest Secret of the Cold War (London, 1999)

  West, Nigel and Oleg Tsarev, eds, The Crown Jewels: The British Secrets at the Heart of the KGB Archives (London, 1998)

  — Triplex: Secrets from the Cambridge Five (Yale, 2009)

  Wheatley, Dennis, The Deception Planners: My Secret War (London, 1980)

  Whiting, Charles, Ghost Front: the Ardennes before the Battle of the Bulge (London, 2002)

  Wright, Peter, Spycatcher: The Candid Autobiography of a Senior Intelligence Officer (London, 1987)

  Notes

  Citations marked KV refer to the Security Service files, PREM to Prime Minister’s Office files and FO to Foreign Office files, all at the National Archives (TNA), Kew.

  Epigraphs

  ‘General slang for members’: s
pymuseum.org/education-programs/spy-resources/language-of-espionage.

  ‘If I had to choose between’: The Nation, 16 July 1938.

  Chapter 1: Apprentice Spy

  ‘I am relieved’: Nicholas Elliott, Never Judge a Man by his Umbrella (London, 1992), p. 101.

  ‘So that’: ibid.

  ‘crossed in love’: ibid., p. 3.

  ‘the epitome of the English’: ibid., p. 1.

  ‘effete’: ibid., p. 88.

  ‘when dealing with foreigners’: ibid., p. 43.

  ‘Claude was highly embarrassed’: ibid., p. 13.

  ‘God, Disease and below’: ibid., p. 18.

  ‘nothing as unpleasant’: ibid., p. 31.

  ‘sheer hell’: ibid., p. 21.

  ‘The increased legibility’: ibid., p. 34.

  ‘How hard should I work’: ibid., p. 80.

  ‘He strongly advised’: ibid.

  ‘a triumph over the examiners’: ibid., p. 89.

  ‘languid, upper-class manner’: Peter Wright, Spycatcher: The Candid Autobiography of a Senior Intelligence Officer (London, 1987), p. 174.

  ‘I could never be a’: Elliott, Umbrella, p. 40.

  ‘obey not the order’: ibid.

  ‘plug ugly’: ibid., p. 15.

  ‘was no more or less’: ibid.

  ‘inability to get down’: ibid., p. 91.

  ‘There was no serious’: Nicholas Elliott, With My Little Eye: Observations Along the Way (Norwich, 1993), p. 16.

  ‘in the diplomatic service’: Elliott, Umbrella, p. 93.

  ‘opportunity to see’: ibid., p. 99.

  ‘We discreetly poked’: ibid.

  ‘a singularly foolhardy’: ibid.

  ‘The Führer is feted’: cited by James Holland, Daily Mail, 18 April 2009.

  ‘I am tempted’: Elliott, Umbrella, p. 100.

  ‘pick the bastard off’: E. Butler, Mason-Mac: The life of Lieutenant-General Sir Noel Mason-MacFarlane (London, 1972), p. 75.

  ‘strongly urged’: Elliott, Umbrella, p. 100.

  ‘My mind was easily’: ibid., p. 101.

  ‘just as soon as it feels’: Christopher Andrew, The Defence of the Realm: The Authorised History of MI5 (London, 2009), p. 195.

  ‘the best and most ingenious’: ibid., p. 196.

  ‘priceless intelligence’: ibid.

  ‘I was really helping’: ibid.

  ‘The English are hopeless’: ibid., p. 204.

  ‘sacrificing himself’: ibid.

  ‘Klop was a man’: Elliott, Umbrella, p. 149.

  ‘complicated man’: ibid., p. 102.

  ‘His motivation was solely’: ibid.

  ‘Is Hitler going to start’: ibid.

  ‘On present plans’: ibid.

  ‘startling statement’: ibid.

  ‘always displayed’: Andrew, Defence of the Realm, p. 246.

  ‘by the autumn of 1939’: Keith Jeffery, MI6: The History of the Secret Intelligence Service 1909–1949 (London, 2010), p. 385.

  ‘it could only be’: Andrew, Defence of the Realm, p. 242.

  ‘brilliant linguist’: Elliott, Umbrella, p. 103.

  ‘an ostentatious ass’: ibid.

  ‘overthrow the present regime’: p. 382.

  ‘I have a hunch’: Andrew, Defence of the Realm, p. 244.

  ‘the big man himself’: Jeffery, MI6, p. 384.

  ‘No one was in sight’: ibid.

  ‘The next moment’: Sigismund Payne Best, The Venlo Incident (London, 1950), p. 17.

  ‘At one stroke’: Elliott, Umbrella, p. 103.

  ‘able to construct’: ibid.

  ‘intense ambition’: ibid.

  ‘possibility of winning’: ibid.

  ‘In the long run’: arcre.com/archive/sis/venlo

  ‘selling everything to Moscow’: Andrew, Defence of the Realm, p. 262.

  ‘as disastrous as it was’: Elliott, Umbrella, p. 103.

  ‘Oh what a tangled web’: Elliott, My Little Eye, p. 11.

  ‘Information has been’: Elliott, Umbrella, p. 106.

  ‘It soon became apparent’: ibid.

  ‘We’re in the final’: ibid., p. 109.

  ‘normality and calmness’: ibid.

  ‘never occurred to me’: ibid.

  ‘England was gripped’: ibid., p. 111.

  ‘give evidence of what’: ibid.

  ‘feeling of camaraderie’: ibid., p. 110.

  ‘My only moment’: ibid.

  ‘Basil Fisher was killed’: ibid.

  Chapter 2: Section V

  ‘He was the sort of man’: Sir Robert Mackenzie, interview with Phillip Knightley, 1967, quoted in Phillip Knightley, The Master Spy: The Story of Kim Philby (London, 1988), p. 119.

  ‘halting stammered witticisms’: Graham Greene, foreword to Kim Philby, My Silent War: The Autobiography of a Spy (London, 1968), p. xx.

  ‘great pluck’: E. G. de Caux to Ralph Deakin, 14 January 1938, The Times Archives.

  ‘Many express disappointment’: The Times, 17 November 1939.

  ‘Camel-hair overcoat’: expenses claim letter, The Times Archives.

  ‘dropped a few hints’: Philby, My Silent War, p. xxviii.

  ‘A person like you’: Knightley, The Master Spy, p. 79.

  ‘We’ll figure something’: ibid.

  ‘war work’: Philby, My Silent War, p. 9.

  ‘intensely likeable’: ibid.

  ‘I began to show off’: ibid., p. 10.

  ‘nothing recorded against’: ibid.

  ‘I was asked about him’: Patrick Seale and Maureen McConville, Philby: The Long Road to Moscow (London, 1973), p. 135.

  ‘set Europe ablaze’: Hugh Dalton, The Fateful Years: Memoirs, 1931–1945 (London, 1957), p. 366.

  ‘I escaped to London’: Philby, My Silent War, p. 63.

  ‘In those days’: Elliott, Umbrella, p. 111.

  ‘He had an ability’: ibid., p. 183.

  ‘the inherent evil’: ibid., p. 105.

  ‘very rarely discussed’: ibid., p. 183.

  ‘the English batting’: ibid.

  ‘Indeed he did not strike me’: ibid.

  ‘pose of amiable’: Hugh R. Trevor-Roper, The Philby Affair: Espionage, Treason, and Secret Services (London, 1968), p. 42.

  ‘by and large pretty stupid’: Christopher Andrew, Secret Service: The Making of the British Intelligence Community (London, 1985), p. 249.

  ‘An exceptional person’: ibid.

  ‘clarity of mind’: Elliott, Umbrella, p. 183.

  ‘He was much more’: ibid.

  ‘The old Secret Service’: Malcolm Muggeridge, Chronicles of Wasted Time, vol. II (London, 1973), p. 136.

  ‘slouching about in sweaters’: ibid.

  ‘You’d drop in to see’: Kim Philby, interview with Phillip Knightley, 1988, in Knightley, The Master Spy, p. 84.

  ‘atmosphere of haute cuisine’: Philby, My Silent War, p. 35.

  ‘out of fun rather’: Elliott, Umbrella, p. 184.

  ‘To start with we always’: Dennis Wheatley, The Deception Planners: My Secret War (London, 1980), p. 30.

  ‘for an hour’: ibid.

  ‘He was a formidable’: Elliott, Umbrella, p. 183.

  ‘serious drinkers should never’: ibid.

  ‘violent headache’: ibid.

  ‘It was an organisation’: Elliott, My Little Eye, p. 22.

  They spoke the same language’: interview with Mark Elliott, 11 November 2013.

  ‘negate, confuse, deceive’: Leo D. Carl, The International Dictionary of Intelligence (McLean Virginia, 1990), p. 83.

  ‘with a knowledge of Spain’: Philby, My Silent War, p. 35.

  ‘The Old Boy network’: ibid., p. 37.

  ‘purblind, disastrous’: Trevor-Roper, The Philby Affair, p. 37.

  ‘As an intelligence officer’: Philby, My Silent War, p. 46.

  ‘suspicious and bristling’: ibid.

  ‘personal contacts with’: ibid., p. 43.

  ‘He was a bit of a
communist’: Seale and McConville, Philby, p. 135.

  ‘active pursuit and liquidation’: Anthony Cave Brown, Treason in the Blood: H. St John Philby, Kim Philby, and the Spy Case of the Century (London, 1995), p. 276.

  ‘Aileen belonged to that class’: Flora Solomon and Barnet Litvinoff, Baku to Baker Street: The Memoirs of Flora Solomon (London, 1984), p. 172.

  ‘He found an avid listener’: ibid.

  ‘She was highly intelligent’: Elliott, Umbrella, p. 182.

  ‘parental pride’: ibid., p. 187.

  ‘long Sunday lunches’: Graham Greene, foreword to Philby, My Silent War, p. xx.

  ‘small loyalties’: ibid.

  ‘He had something about him’: Seale and McConville, Philby, p. 133.

  ‘merry band’: Desmond Bristow with Bill Bristow, A Game of Moles: The Deceptions of an MI6 Officer (London, 1993), p. 17.

  ‘a purchaser of skunk excrement’: ibid., p. 18.

  ‘The sense of dedication’: Cave Brown, Treason in the Blood, p. 276.

  ‘No one could have’: Graham Greene, foreword to Philby, My Silent War, p. xix.

  ‘a gentle-looking man’: Bristow, A Game of Moles, pp. 262–3.

  ‘cosiness’: Philby, My Silent War, p. 63.

  ‘It was not difficult’: ibid.

  ‘a good cricket umpire’: Felix Cowgill, interview with Anthony Cave Brown, 1983, in Cave Brown, Treason in the Blood, p. 275.

  ‘calculating ambition’: Knightley, The Master Spy, p. 119.

  ‘single-mindedness’: ibid.

  ‘There was something’: Hugh Trevor-Roper, interview by Graham Turner, Daily Telegraph, 28 January 2003.

  ‘It was not long’: Philby, My Silent War, p. 53.

  ‘to good use in disrupting’: ibid., p. 55.

  ‘mingle with the crowd’: Jeffery, MI6, p. 387.

  ‘party-goer’s image’: ibid.

  ‘This is the last time’: Charles Whiting, Ghost Front: the Ardennes before the Battle of the Bulge (London, 2002), pp. 203–4.

  ‘an operational disaster’: Philby, My Silent War, p. 52.

  ‘virtually at will’: ibid., p. 63.

  ‘contacts with other SIS’: ibid.

  ‘fire-watching nights’: Graham Greene, foreword to Philby, My Silent War, p. xx.

  ‘bulging briefcase’: Philby, My Silent War, p. 63.

  ‘longhand, in neat, tiny writing’: Sir Robert Mackenzie, interview with Phillip Knightley, 1967, quoted in Knightley, The Master Spy, p. 118.