But at the famous Secret Trial in 1952, he convinced his MI5 interrogator Buster Milmo that he was not a Soviet agent. 1937Joins The Times as foreign correspondent. He went on to serve the KGB for 54 years. Halfway there, they switched cars and drove to a small airport in the Soviet zone of Austria. Prince Harry drops 45 points and Meghan Markle 36 points in just over a month in US public opinion poll Sadiq Khan faces furious backlash over plans for biggest transport and council tax rises in a decade as James Martin warns This Morning viewers why they should NEVER store their eggs in the fridge. "Kim said to me, 'I came here totally fully of information, I wanted to give everything I had but no one was interested," explained Pukhova. It was bad enough with Kim and the Cambridge spies showing up the British establishment, but the idea that this foreign Jewish woman might run rings around men in positions of authority, perhaps that was embarrassing for them. When Bennett was pulled up on the matter, he wrote my father a note explaining that he stood by what hed said as the information had come from a reliable source a BBC journalist. 1912Harold Adrian Russell Kim Philby is born on 1 January in Amballa, India, the son of Dora and St John. Thanks for this post. We searched every corner until Kim suddenly struck himself on the head with his hand, went to a cupboard and brought back the boot. Maclean bequeathed Blake his library of books, including Trollope, Macaulay's History of England, Morley's Life of Gladstone, and the Macmillan and Eden memoirs. They took the train to Zurich, where they changed trains to Schwarzach in Austria. While I was researching this article, Bennett also the author of An Englishman Abroad, in which he imagines Guy Burgesss final years in Moscow: lonely, pathetic and wholly unfulfilled responded to a shorter opinion piece I wrote for this paper last July in which I defended my grandfathers decision not to apologise publicly for his actions. While working as a senior member of British intelligence, he spied on behalf of the Soviet KGB and NKVD from the early 1930s until 1963, when he defected to Moscow. In those days, correspondence had to be sent to a PO Box; and in his reply, Kim would sign off under a special code name, Panina (a combination of Pa and Nina, the alias used for Kims wife). He achieved the deception by employing his occasional stutter, so as to buy himself time to think before telling another bare-faced lie. Image: Barney Beech, A Sunday Times best book of the year, here is Edith and Kim in review - and where to find signed first editions, An interview with Stephanie Merritt about Edith and Kim, the perils of writing about family, and why female spies often get overlooked, From a compendium of stories about life at the Bauhaus to a Modernist memoir by the founder of the iconic Isokon, here are some of the books that inspired my forthcoming novel, For the Telegraph, I wrote about the woman who recruited my grandfather to the Soviets - the subject of my forthcoming novel Edith and Kim, My tribute to the late - and truly great - master of spy fiction, for the i paper, From a celebration of the life of John le Carr at Cheltenham to an exploration of women and crime in Chiswick, please join me at one of the following events, across the country (and the internet!). Fergus announced to some children with whom he was playing that My Daddy wants to stop all wars. John Philby, who has died aged 65, was the eldest son of the Russian spy Kim Philby, unmasked in 1963 as a double agent and the notorious Third Man in the Cambridge spy ring of the 1930s. But more generally womens roles in espionage have been sidelined, and I wonder if thats because a lot of this history has been recorded by men. Over the years he did everything that was asked of him: he gave everything he had to the cause, and yet still Moscow was deeply suspicious of a man who has been described as their finest and most loyal servant. In her article, published yesterday in British daily The Independent, she describes Kim Philby as "a proud man, and one who chose to publicly stand by his actions". When Burgess and Maclean fled to Moscow, avoiding capture, Kim was the chief suspect for having given them the heads-up. They're at it again! The two-drink tradition remained but in time there was no longer a need to hide the bottle, she added. Kim Philbys granddaughter describes memories of her grandfather. Part of the Family and A Double Life are available now. (4 children) Litzi Friedmann (24 February 1934 - 1946) (divorced . Kim was appointed head of a newly formed anti-Soviet section, and as the top Secret Intelligence Service representative, worked for several years in liaison with the CIA and FBI all along handing information straight back into the hands of the Russians. His drinking made him paranoid that his wife would abandon him. Kim Philby drank while Guy Burgess, who was gay, missed his friends in London, including Anthony Blunt whose spying activities, though known to the government, were kept under wraps until they were exposed much later, in 1979. Born in 1946, Dudley 'Tommy' Philby is the third of Kim's five children with his second of four wives, Aileen Furse Philby. They even had a dacha a country cottage 20 miles from Moscow where the children could swim, fish, bicycle and forage for mushrooms. To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. So Philby left his wife and children in England in September 1956, arriving in a country for which he had little natural sympathy. The gang of British spies who ended up in Moscow in the 1950s and 1960s were employed in KGB training schools and international research institutes. Harold Adrian Russell " Kim " Philby ORB, OL ODN (1 January 1912 - 11 May 1988) [1] was a British intelligence officer and a double agent for the Soviet Union. His cover story was that he was a political migr, a trade union leader persecuted in England for his political views. But as the months turned into years and no word came from him, she sank into depression at the realisation that she was now bringing up their children alone. The whole plan is being masterminded by Kim Philby in Moscow. Seconds later, were hurtling at break-neck speed out of the cemetery, along the motorway, the driver making various calls en route, each consisting of just a few short sentences, before turning into a different burial ground up the road, manned with armed guards. Was he wrong to have continued on the Communist path once so many others had stepped off? But as the author Graham Greene my grandfathers close friend and a fellow British intelligence officer, who worked under him at MI6 wrote in the introduction to Kims autobiography, My Silent War: The end, of course, in his eyes is held to justify the means, but this is a view taken, perhaps less openly, by most men involved in politics, if we are to judge them by their actions, whether the politician be a Disraeli or a Wilson. n ADAPTED from A Spy Named Orphan by Roland Philipps, to be published by The Bodley Head on April 26 at 20. kims flat is several floors up, in an apartment block not far from Pushkin Square, marked out from the rest by a tiny balcony. In 1949 Kim Philby became SIS representative in Washington, as top British Secret Service officer working in liaison with the CIA and FBI. That was my dad leaving to go to Kims funeral [in 1988] and we were hounded by paparazzi. I remember Kims words: I have followed exactly the same line the whole of my adult life. He liked the fact that you could only buy seasonal goods in Moscow, but asked family members to bring out the non-perishables he loved and couldnt get there marmalade, Marmite and Worcestershire sauce. There, he volunteered for the refugee committee, fundraising, secretly writing and disseminating propaganda, raising funds and distributing clothes and money to those whod escaped Fascist Germany. For another, hed made his bed. Find out where Kim Philby was born, their birthday and details about their professions, education, religion, family and other life details and facts. The boys told a child they met on a beach that the photos he had taken could not be forwarded to them as we are going away and we dont know where we are going. He had got afraid that I would leave, and hidden the boot.". Eleanor Philby. In the middle of the bookcase behind his desk, above his empty chair, just where Kims head would have rested, a single book looms out, cover first. In 1963, having been exposed in Britain as the notorious Third Man in the Cambridge Spy Ring, Kim fled to Moscow, never again to set foot from behind the Iron Curtain. Kim went to great efforts upon his return to England to cover the traces of his Communist background joining the Anglo-German fellowship in 1934, and editing its pro-Hitler magazine; making repeated visits to Berlin for talks with the German propaganda ministry; even being personally presented with the Red Cross of Military Merit award by Franco in 1938. After five years of silence, communications were re-established with family and friends. "But he never got aggressive, and just went to bed. Today, this pedestrianised street is only accessible by a coded gate, and the faade of the building has been tarted up almost beyond recognition. Kim Philby met his first wife the Jewess, Litzi Friedman in Vienna, and it was Friedman, a dyed-in-the-wool communist, who convinced Philby to become a fellow KGB . children: John David Philby Josephine F. Philby Dudley Thomas Philby Miranda Philby Harry George Philby Birth. That he could carry on a secret life without her being aware, while at the same time working his way up the ranks of the British Foreign Office, seemed perfectly possible. Your email address will not be published. To order A Spy Among Friends or Kim Philby, each at 14.99 with free UK p&p, call Guardian book service on 0330 333 6846 or go to guardianbookshop.co.uk. He worked as a journalist until 1940, when Guy . Maclean was unsure how to act, feeling a mixture of guilt and love, not knowing where he stood with the children he had abandoned and not been able to contact. Kims library, which he had shipped over soon after he emerged in the Soviet Union, is testimony to his complexities and to his contradictions: across four walls of bookshelves, Russian classics and key Communist texts stand side by side with Raymond Chandler and PG Wodehouse novels; there are 19 volumes of Cambridge Modern History and a Sherlock Holmes scrapbook. Occasionally, the driver would draw a curtain around the inside of the windows, and attach a flashing blue light to the roof before setting off. Exposure showed me along with William Boyds Restless how you can write a novel that is ostensibly a spy story but is really about the people, and the families, at the heart of a great betrayal. Shes a sympathetic character in the novel. In any case, even if an address had been known for grandpa, it may not have been much use in 2010. As well as being my grandfather whom I remember from childhood trips to Russia as a funny old man with a beaming smile, who dressed almost exclusively in white vests and braces Kim Philby, to this day, remains one of the most significant double agents in modern history. But I dont think my grandfather ever questioned a single decision he made. Later she became a journalist at the Independent. By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org | Kim Philby with partner Melinda Maclean (who later returned to her husband and fellow spy, Donald Maclean) walk in the woods outside Moscow in the 1960's, photographed by his son John, Donald Maclean pictured in 1937 whilst on a skiing holiday - he fled to Moscow to escape arrest in Britain as the spy who, for 15 years, had passed state secrets to the Soviet Union, Melinda Maclean and her sons in their last European home in Geneva 1953 -she was slight with curly, dark hair, 'an under-educated, attractive woman who was both affectionate and popular'. He claimed he made the admission to her to excuse his lateness for their meetings when he was busy handling documents and rendezvousing with his Soviet handler. A plaque in his honour was unveiled by the head of the foreign intelligence service at its headquarters in Moscow in December. The controversial civil rights leader was gunned down in front of his wife and children while making a speech in New York. Aileen died in 1957, when Tommy was just 11 years old; his contact with his father was cut off as soon as the double spy defected to the USSR in January 1963. What are you currently reading?Im trying to reconnect with what made me fall in love with books and the process of writing so Im going back to reread some of the books that feel seminal for me: The Beach, The Child in Time, White Teeth, Disgrace, The Poisonwood Bible and The Peoples Act of Love. JOHN Philby, the eldest son of Soviet spy Kim Philby, who was a double agent and the notorious Third Man in the Cambridge spy ring of the 1930s, has died in England. My second novel is The Times' Book of the Month for July 2020, Chapman Pincher: The Spy-Catcher of Fleet Street, Edith Tudor-Hart: The grandmother of the Cambridge Spies, John le Carr: The writer who made me want to write, ELLE: An unexpected friendship with the other woman. The pair returned to England in May and, by this point already an appointed Soviet agent, Kim found work as a foreign correspondent. He needed a secret sharer in his life as well as someone to admire him. "His alcoholism was suicide," she told the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper. Published: 00:50 GMT, 17 April 2018 | Updated: 14:46 GMT, 17 April 2018, For 15 years, British diplomat Donald Maclean was passing state secrets to his KGB masters. Did you feel that as you uncovered her story?I feel a huge amount of sympathy for her situation, and admiration, really. One of Kims old KGB comrades, whom Id been in contact with during the course of my research for this article, told me that a gang of five or six of Kims former colleagues still meet up every month and raise a toast in his honour. Without a word, he steps out in his long dark trench coat and buffed-leather shoes, opening the back door for me to follow. But so it was. Charlotte Philby, daughter of John Philby, H.A.R. But again, it was justifiable in his mind. For one thing, Kims life behind the Iron Curtain wasnt bad. In 1963 he was revealed to be a member of the Cambridge Five, a spy ring which had divulged British secrets to the Soviets during World War II and in the early stages of the Cold War. But Maclean sobered up and went cold turkey in a detoxification clinic. Kims case was not helped by the fact that several of his Soviet controllers including Mar, the man who recruited him had later been executed as enemies of the people. During our stay, more mourners piled in, their cries and moans ricocheting off the walls. A Double Life: The Times & Observers Thriller of the Month. On their first night in Moscow, an elated Burgess and Maclean had dined in style on a great hotel balcony on the first floor overlooking the Kremlin and got drunk on vodka. He feared that she would dump him because he was just a boring official in the British diplomatic service so to make myself look better and more important, I told her the reason why I led such a life. But we visited Kim in Moscow and those holidays form some of my earliest memories, so it wasnt like he was a secret. And if a soldier is fighting for a cause he believes in, which he believes is worth sacrificing single human lives for, but then in the end his side loses the war, does that mean that he was wrong to have stood up and fought in the first place? Takes charge of British intelligence in Spain and Portugal. 1955Government white paper on Burgess-Maclean affair. He believed in freedom of speech and thought that Stalinism and all that were temporary and obviously, the outcome proved otherwise. The fight against Fascism and the fight against imperialism were fundamentally the same fight.. In a written statement, they admitted they had been Communists since their Cambridge days and disingenuously described themselves as political refugees, not spies. The two men in the front seat my guards of honour peer out in silence, squinting their eyes against the sunlight as it pours in through the canopy of trees above. There, a tall man in a blue suit and red bow-tie held out his hand and said: I am Donald Maclean. With him in the room was Guy Burgess. And while on holiday in Majorca, she gave away a lot of her clothes to the maid of a family she was staying with. "Kim believed in a just society and devoted his whole life to communism. Regardless of what I think of her ideology, I greatly admire the fact that she was able to hold these various parts of her life being a photographer, being a single mother alongside being a revolutionary, feeling that she could change the world. He was 76. Kim was not nave; he knew that his ideal, like any other, was susceptible to corruption. One can hardly overlook the irony of a man who so resolutely betrayed his country, surrounding himself in his Soviet apartment with British condiments, newspapers and light-hearted English classics. Edith and Kim by Charlotte Philby is published by HarperCollins (14.99). 1988Dies 11 May at the age of 76. Required to take new names and identities, Maclean chose to be Mark Petrovich Frazer (after the Cambridge anthropologist Sir James Frazer of Golden Bough fame, a 12-volume study of mythology and religion). But that didnt mean the ideal itself was corrupt or not worth pursuing. Philby was a 25-year-old reporter for The Times and had just returned from covering the Spanish Civil War when he met rebellious Aileen Furse in London in 1937. When the news broke in Britain that she, too, had defected, the Press rounded on Melinda, turning the pathetic and lonely figure theyd previously portrayed her as into a scheming deceiver. As for Melinda the central figure in the circle of loyalty and secrecy, desertion and reconciliation, love and solitariness that was the human drama of Donald Macleans life she lived well into her 90s before dying in New York in 2010, silent to the end about her years with one of Britains most infamous traitors. It's Mr (coffee) Bean! There are so many ways that Kims choices have continued to occupy my mind since my dad died in 2009, but I do feel that this book draws a line under it. Of course, he made bold and hugely controversial decisions, some of which had fatal consequences, but he didnt do so lightly. When I happened upon the story of Edith Tudor-Hart, I knew that she was the person I had to write about. Shes always cast as a bit player if shes mentioned at all, but she was a remarkable woman. The two men said very little and the interview lasted barely five minutes. "There was one funny incident," she remembered. But more importantly, every decision he made was done consciously. Then they boarded what was described as a small military-type aircraft which flew them to Moscow to be reunited with Donald. 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