The Murder of Hilda Murrell: Conspiracy Theories Old and New

Lobster Issue 28 (December 1994) £££

Following the initial investigation by the West Mercia Police, there have been over a dozen reviews of this extraordinary case. Reviewers include Robert Green, (1) Tam Dalyell MP, (2) Graham Smith,(3) World in Action,(4) BBC Crimewatch,(5) John Osborne,(6) Amanda Mitchison, (7) Bob Parker (8); and more recently, David Cole and Peter Acland, (9) Nick Davies,(10) … Read more

Steady as she goes: Labour and the spooks

Lobster Issue 35 (Summer 1998) £££

Patriots not sneaks After a year of New Labour I feel beholden to write something on this subject, but what is there worth saying that isn’t blindingly and depressingly obvious and predictable? Jack Straw, who took over as Home Secretary, and thus formally as the boss of MI5, is determined to sedate any sleeping dogs … Read more

Clockwork Orange 2 Jottings

Lobster Issue 14 (1987) £££

Clockwork Orange 2 Jottings Here is another, previously unpublished section from Wallace’s 1974 jottings for the aborted operation ‘Clockwork Orange 2’. Can Politicians Be Trusted? N. St. Stevas: homosexual – boyfriend of Elton John’s manager – cocaine user at parties Homosexual relationships – Heath, Van Straubenzee, St. John Stevas, Thorpe Child prostitution: William McGrath, Van … Read more

Rebranding SIS

Lobster Issue 40 (Winter 2000/1) £££

SIS is dead – you read it first in Lobster – but the funeral has not been announced. Established in 1909, it will not make its centenary. SIS once offered a global brand operating in a market that had been previously divided along the lines of accepted cartels (market fixing). Its market-share, however, has been … Read more

Downing Street Diary: With Harold Wilson in No. 10

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Lobster Issue 50 (Winter 2005/6) £££

Bernard Donoughue London: Jonathan Cape, £25, h/b   Political diaries are among my favourite reading. In that genre this is an absolute belter; but not for the minutiae of policy formation, with which Donoughue was primarily preoccupied, or the account of the government’s handling of various incidents, interesting though they are; but for the picture … Read more

The Rough Guide to Conspiracy Theories

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Lobster Issue 50 (Winter 2005/6) £££

James McConnachie and Robin Tudge, London, New York: Rough Guide Ltd (Penguin Books), 2005, p/b £9.99 / $14.99 (US) / $22.99 (Can)   This chunky paperback is intended to give readers an introduction to the world of conspiracies and the theories around them, as opposed to works which discuss conspiracy theories as a topic in … Read more

The View from the Bridge

Lobster Issue 28 (December 1994) £££

A spook, moi? One of the formative experiences of my youth – and we’re talking early 1960s here, beatnik days, when wearing a narrow leather tie was pretty hip – was going to the Mound in Edinburgh on Sunday nights. The Mound is like Hyde Park Corner in London, a place where local by-laws allow … Read more

Terrorism: how the West can win

Lobster Issue 13 (1987) £££

Terrorism: how the West can win editor Benjamin Netanyahu (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London 1986) This is a collection of papers read at the 1984 Jonathan Institute conference on terrorism held in Israel, and because these were originally papers there is no documentation: what we have is 230 pages of assertions. The contributors range from current … Read more

Wizard: the life and times of Nikola Tesla

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Lobster Issue 39 (Summer 2000) £££

Marc Seifer Birch Lane Press, 1996. £15.95 (plus £2 postage) from Counter Productions, PO Box 556, London SE5 0RL. In the last 15-20 years the name Nikola Tesla has been one you bump against whilst navigating a mire of (often) unreliable books churned out on the unified field, free energy, HAARP electro-magnetics, and mind control. … Read more

The CIA and the Culture of Failure

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Lobster Issue 57 (Summer 2009) £££

John Diamond Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 2008, h/b. No price is stated but it’s around $30 on-line. In The Guardian on 4 March 2009 William Dalrymple wrote: ‘Eight years of neocon foreign policies have been a spectacular disaster for American interests in the Islamic world, leading to the advance of Hamas and Hezbollah, the … Read more

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