#george blake

[j-august]

Blake: ... And [Kim Philby] found it very difficult to adjust here. What happened was, he was a journalist by trade, and a very good journalist, and when he came here he got work at the APN, the Russian news agency. One time he wrote an article about a certain issue in the Middle East, he was a great expert on the Middle East because of his father. Anyway, he gave that article to the person who was supposed to print it, and that person made all sorts of changes to it, and he [Philby] was simply furious, because he couldn't imagine that anyone would dare change or improve what he had written. Then he walked out of there and he didn't want to work with them again... Me: He didn't understand that the Russians used censorship. Blake: Yes! ... So that was the end of his work [laughs].

Simon Kuper, The Happy Traitor

[j-august]

Days after the escape, Blake and Bourke moved into the maisonette of the anti-nuclear clergyman John Papworth and his wife, Marcelle, in Earls Court. However, the Papworths weren't happy to find out that they were housing George Blake. The outlaws had only been in the house one day when Papworth walked into their bedroom to have a conversation along these lines: Papworth: My wife is undergoing a course of analysis. This requires her to be absolutely frank with her analyst and not to conceal anything from him. Blake: Are you saying that she has told him about us? Papworth: Everything. There's no point in it if she isn't completely frank. You must understand, of course, that what she says to him is in the strictest confidence. Blake: And what did the analyst say when she told him? Papworth: Oh, he said that she was imagining it, and that it was because there has been so much publicity about the escape of George Blake.

Simon Kuper, The Happy Traitor

[j-august]

The secrets that Blake and the other British spies passed on to Moscow were often ignored. Yet even the ones that were believed rarely shaped Soviet policy, let alone changed the course of history. We are conditioned to think of the world of espionage as a treasure chest of great secrets. In fact, it is more like a junk shop whose proprietor has lost track of his stock.

Simon Kuper, The Happy Traitor

[j-august]

In Moscow I put it to him: 'You swapped your religion for Communism.' I expected him to demur, but he said, 'Yes, that's very clear. Religion promises people, let's say, Communism after their death. Because in heaven we are all equal and we live in wonderful circumstances. And Communism promises people a wonderful life here on earth - and nothing came of that either."

Simon Kuper, The Happy Traitor

[j-august]

Blake found himself just as much an outsider in the KGB as he had been in SIS. The Soviet service didn't employ many Calvinist-Jewish intellectuals with an aversion to violence.

Simon Kuper, The Happy Traitor

[j-august]

In the spring of 1967 Blake sent his mother at least four letters, each of them posted to a different address in England. The one sent to her home bore an Egyptian postmark. She was tearful with joy to hear from him, and happily passed on the letter to Scotland Yard, which, she remarked, had always been good to her. Blake's ex-wife, Gillian, freshly remarried, commented that she was very pleased to hear that he was doing well.

Simon Kuper, The Happy Traitor

[j-august]

In Lebanon the heavily pregnant Gillian Blake was told that her husband was a KGB agent, and instantly believed it. 'I didn't say, "You must have got hold of the wrong man, it can't be true." As I thought back to George's background and to the six-and-a-half years of our very happy life, it all fitted in somehow.' Trying to explain his actions, she pointed out his 'lack of the substantial background that people have, of family and schools and all that sort of thing.' The Dutchman Louis Wesseling, a fellow student of Blake's on the Arabic course, said later: 'It was my Eureka moment: That's it! That's why he is so reserved, wants to be open but cannot be fully open, holds something back from me, is a friend but not a total friend - that's it.' As Gillian commented, 'He really had no friends, though he knew a lot of people and liked a lot of people.'

Simon Kuper, The Happy Traitor

[j-august]

At one point during his outpourings he asked his interrogators, "Am I boring you?" "Not at all," one of them replied. Bower, whose book The Perfect English Spy gives the fullest description of the interrogation, recounts another gem: Blake: Perhaps you should give me a revolver and leave me alone in the room? A voice: Oh no, it's not as serious as that!

Simon Kuper, The Happy Traitor