One Boggis-Rolfe or two? Philby: The Hidden Years Morris Riley Janus Publishing, London, 1999, £9.95 pb There are almost as many Philbys as there are readers. His current reputation is as thin as the biographies are fat. Is there room on the shelf for yet another Philby book? Perhaps for a slim one. Amidst legal … Read more
British Spooks “Who’s Who” part 2 Steve Dorril See also: Part 1: Forty Years of Legal Thuggery (Lobster 9) Intelligence Personnel Named in ‘Inside Intelligence’ (Lobster 15) Philby naming names (Lobster 16) First supplement to A Who’s Who of the British Secret State (Lobster 19) Spooks (Lobster 22) CABLE, ERIC GRANT CMG (1938) B 25.2.1887 … Read more
How MI6 and the CIA were involved in the death of Princess Diana Jon King and John Beveridge New York: SPI Books, 2002, £18.95 In the five years since the Paris car crash that killed Princess Diana, Dodi Fayed, and Henri Paul, interest in Diana herself may have waned, (1) but the circumstances surrounding her … Read more
Apartheid’s friends: The rise and fall of South Africa’s secret service James Sanders London: John Murray, 2006, £11.99, p/b This is a tremendously impressive piece of work; and it’s big: 395 pages of text, another 100 pages of notes and sources and a decent index. I imagine that most of it will be new … Read more
Scott et al I do have a copy of the Scott Report but I simply have not had time to read it. It seems pretty clear from the comments of a number of the knowledgeable minority who have followed this story for the past few years that, for whatever reason, Scott and his team have … Read more
Tell me lies: Propaganda and Media Distortion in the Attack on Iraq ed. David Millar London: Pluto, 2003, £12.99, p/back One of the downsides of appearing every six months is that occasionally books arrive just too late for the issue in which they should appear and by the time the next issue appears they … Read more
Books Alan Turing: the enigma of intelligence Andrew Hughes (Unwin 1985) If you have a chance, read Alan Turing: the enigma of intelligence by Andrew Hughes (Unwin 1985). Now in paperback, Hughes’ excellent biography rescues from near obscurity a true eccentric genius. It is of interest to us because of Turing’s essential work on the … Read more
The Last Supper: The Mafia, the Masons and the killing of Roberto Calvi Philip Willan London: Robinson, 2007, £7.99, p/b Willan wrote the wonderful The Puppet Masters about post-war Italian politics and this is more of the same, a smaller patch examined in more detail. Never mind the subtitle: yes, he does reexamine the … Read more
Parish Notices Mrs Anthony Verney died in early March this year. With her husband, Anthony, she was irradiated by persons unknown, for reasons unknown, at their retirement home in Kent. She is the first UK fatality of which I am aware resulting from the new generation of electro-magnetic weaponry; and it says much about this … Read more
The most reported episode at the 2002 Labour Party Conference was the tour of Blackpool made by ex-President Clinton and film star Kevin Spacey. Given the status and photogenic nature of the individuals concerned this was hardly surprising. Little was said in the media, though, about the duos’ grand entrance, accompanied by the Prime Minister … Read more
