Tag: Kim Philby

2,972 words

It ought to be mighty difficult to make a bad production — be it documentary, fictionalized, semi-fictionalized — out of the career of master spy Kim Philby. Yet, somehow the makers of the six-part mini-series A Spy Among Friends have succeeded in that grim task. (First broadcast a year ago in England on ITVX; in America it’s streaming on MGM+.) This is not from lack of talent or production values. Rather, the problem appears to be poor knowledge of the subject and lack of respect for the available material, most notably the wonderful Ben Macintyre book of the same title, which inspired the TV series but did not inform it to any great extent — alas! (more…)

William Joyce

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William Brooke Joyce, the Berlin propaganda broadcaster known as “Lord Haw-Haw,” and the last man to be executed in England for treason, was an agent for MI5. He went to Berlin in August 1939 at the behest of an old friend and spymaster, and wound up becoming the English voice of Nazi radio. Then, in 1945, he was brought back to London, tried as a traitor, and hanged on January 3, 1946.

This was done to please the Kremlin, and to protect Communists in the British government and intelligence services. (more…)

1,421 words

Joseph Rudyard Kipling was born 150 years ago today in Bombay, India, to a cultivated English family of artists and academics. After an often unhappy childhood at school in England, he returned to his beloved India where he worked as a journalist, short story writer, and author of light verse (including the original Barrack-Room Ballads).  (more…)

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Guy Burgess

Edited by Alex Kurtagić 

Part 2 of 2

Editor’s Note: 

The following is an excerpt from Jonathan Bowden’s Vermin.  (more…)

Spy Kim Philby honored on Soviet postage stamp

3,017 words

Edited by Alex Kurtagić 

Part 1 of 2

Editor’s Note: 

The following is an excerpt from Jonathan Bowden’s Vermin. The book was written sometime between 1990 and 1991. The text has only been lightly edited for punctuation, spelling, and capitalization.

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