spies
My lasting friendship with a disgraced MI6 officer
After a stellar career in the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), better known as MI6, an unassuming man with a passion…
Too posh for the cosh
In 2014, Ben Macintyre presented a BBC2 documentary based on his book A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the…
Can we brainwash our enemies?
Disinformation is on the rise, and Britain’s spies are on the back foot. Our intelligence leaders warn about election meddling,…
Russian spies and the return of the Cold War
Last week’s arrest of a security guard employed at the British embassy in Berlin, on suspicion of spying for Russia,…
Secrets and spies
The Courier is a Cold War spy thriller and the prospect of a Cold War spy thriller always makes my…
Night moves
The Night Manager (BBC1, Sunday) announced its intentions immediately, when the opening credits lovingly combined weapons and luxury items. ‘Blimey,’…
Pry another day
Were David Cameron in any way adept at spin, it would be tempting to think that the publication of the…
Spying and potting
The main problem with being a TV critic, I’ve noticed over the years, is that you have to watch so…
Are we all potential cyberterrorists now?
Hollywood got there first, of course. Back in 1983, before most of us even learned — then forgot again —…
The end of secrecy
Gordon Corera, best known as the security correspondent for BBC News, somehow finds time to write authoritative, well-researched and readable…
Spy if you must, but don’t give the game away
The Snoopers’ Charter. I ought to care about this. I’m a sort of libertarian. I believe in personal freedom. I’m…
Now you see it…
John Gerard, a Jesuit priest immured in the Tower of London in 1597, and tortured by being hung from manacles…
I, spy
There can’t have been this many books about the first world war since — just after the first world war.…
Who knows wins
Anyone brought up as I was in a Daily Express household in the 1950s — there were approaching 11 million…
Fighting communism single-handed
Had Onan not spilled his seed upon the ground, he might have invented invisible ink. The possibility had not occurred…
