John Le Carré in a scene from The Pigeon Tunnel.
Apple TV+
John le Carré and Ian Fleming, the world’s most famous spy novelists, share experience in UK intelligence and difficult childhoods. But their heroes, George Smiley and James Bond, are very different.
INtelligence appears to be concentrated on the right-hand side of the stage.
EPA-EFE/Anatoly Maltsev
Once again allegations have surfaced that the former US president was a Russian ‘asset’. Maybe so, but that doesn’t mean he was their agent.
Giant of literary fiction: John le Carré was both influenced by, and influential on, Britain’s secret services.
Matt Crossick/PA Wire/PA Images
Le Carré drew on his own experience to change public perceptions of the world of spying.
Comrades and friends: Michael Foot with his election agent Ron Lemin.
JLemin22 via Wikimedia Commons
Was the former Labour leader a paid-up Soviet spy? It’s time the security services told us once and for all.
Clare Hollingworth’s press card.
Alchetron
Clare Hollingworth was one of the most accomplished foreign correspondents of the 20th century. Here’s another of her big scoops.
Alan Turing is now feted – but what of other gay people in government service?
Gerald Massey
Hundreds, if not thousands, of gay people had their careers and lives blighted by official discrimination.
Comrades in treachery: Donald Maclean (left) and Guy Burgess.
PA/PA Archive
New papers shed light on the aftermath of the dramatic flight of two of the notorious ‘Cambridge Spies’.
British foreign secretary Anthony Eden having a confidential chat with Soviet ambassador Ivan Maisky.
The Scheffer-Voskressenski family.
Ivan Maisky was Russia’s ambassador to the Court of St James from 1932 to 1943. By charming his way into Britain’s inner circles he arguably passed on more secrets than the infamous Cambridge Five.