IN CITING WORKS IN THE NOTES, SHORT TITLES HAVE GENERALLY BEEN USED. Works frequently cited have been identified by the following abbreviations:
1369—The Red Book in the Wiener Library
495-198-1267—Glading Papers in the Russian State Archive of Social-Political History (RGASPI), Moscow
ADM—Records of the Admiralty and related bodies in the National Archives, Kew
CAB—Records of the Cabinet Office in the National Archives, Kew
COR—London Western Coroners District Collection in the London Metropolitan Archive
DOM—Domvile Papers in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London
HO—Records created or inherited by the Home Office and related bodies in the National Archives, Kew (the first two numbers following HO indicate the record shelfmark, the third number refers to the document number, so HO 283/40/22 is the document numbered 22 in the record HO 283/40)
HS—Records of Special Operations Executive
IOR—India Office Records in the British Library, London
KV—Records of the Security Service in the National Archives, Kew (the first two numbers following KV indicate the record shelfmark, the third number refers to the item number, so KV 4/227/1a is the document labeled 1a in the record KV 4/227; “History Sheet” refers to a nonindexed section found at the back of some older MI5 personal files)
MS 310—Kent (Tyler Gatewood) Papers in the Yale University Library, New Haven, Connecticut
For any further help on tracking down a source or citation listed here please contact the author via his website.
“except for an uncomfortable”: John Baker White, It’s Gone for Good (London: Vacher, 1941), 119.
“promising young officer”: ADM 240/49/4.
“the inevitable tortoises”: Maxwell Knight, Some of My Animals (London: G. Bell & Sons, 1954), 20.
“I was brought up”: Maxwell Knight, How to Keep an Elephant (London: Wolfe, 1967), 26.
“more intelligent than”: Knight, Some of My Animals, 13–14.
“I got her to”: Maxwell Knight, Pets: Usual and Unusual (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1951), 78.
“He handled them”: Quoted in Anthony Masters, The Man Who Was M (London: Grafton, 1986), 15.
“unfit for”: Dennis Wheatley, The Young Man Said (London: Hutchinson, 1977), 136.
“You can call off”: 1924 Black’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians (London: A & C Black, 1924), 296.
“London’s first small”: Tom Driberg, “William Hickey,” Daily Express, September 27, 1934.
“as they say love”: Philip Larkin, “For Sidney Bechet,” in The Whitsun Weddings (London: Faber, 1971), 16.
“did my best”: Desert Island Discs, BBC Home Service, June 28, 1965.
“Some ass”: Ibid.
“fairly close”: Maxwell Knight, Reptiles in Britain (Leicester: Brockhampton, 1965), 34.
“the most attractive bundle”: Knight, Pets: Usual and Unusual, 78.
“In a world where”: Ibid., 13.
“completely enamoured”: Nigel Farndale, Haw-Haw (London: Macmillan, 2005), 59.
“The whole of Europe”: David Lloyd George, “The Fontainebleau Memorandum of 25 March 1919,” in Breakdown and Rebirth: 1914 to the Present, ed. Thomas G. Barnes and Gerald D. Feldman (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1982), 43.
“makes no secret”: Quoted in Richard H. Ullman, The Anglo-Soviet Relations 1917–1921 (London: Oxford University Press, 1972), 412.
“somewhat on Masonic lines”: Christopher Andrew, The Defence of the Realm (London: Penguin, 2010), 123.
“If you talk”: John Baker White, True Blue (London: Frederick Muller, 1970), 130.
“unique feature”: Baker White, It’s Gone for Good, 119.
“superfluity of voluntary workers”: KV 3/57/3a.
“the Roman genius”: Quoted in Martin Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill, Vol. 5 (London: Heinemann, 1981), 226.
“persuade”: Peter Martland quoted in Tom Kington, “Recruited by MI5,” Guardian, October 13, 2009.
“decried my youthful”: Baker White, True Blue, 123.
“The opinion of Headquarters”: KV 3/57/3a.
“experience of intelligence work”: HS 9/978/1.
“self-confident”: Ibid.
“It is so easy”: Maxwell Knight to Eric Roberts, November 19, 1934, Eric Roberts Papers.
“look of unutterable boredom”: Maxwell Knight, Gunmen’s Holiday (London: Philip Allan, 1935), 94.
“breeding bears”: Knight, Pets: Usual and Unusual, 79.
“intensely keen”: HS 9/978/1.
“He saw battle”: KV 2/245/1b.
“Join the Fascisti”: “Class War,” Daily Herald, January 26, 1925.
“crept like duck-weed”: “The ‘Reds’ of Battersea,” Times (London), November 29, 1923.
“chose from among”: KV 3/57/3a.
“Pandemonium”: “Socialist Hooligans Wreck Opposition Meetings,” Daily Mirror, October 23, 1924.
“Scenes of great disorder”: “Election Rowdyism,” Times (London), October 23, 1924.
“untiring in his efforts”: KV 2/245/1a.
“little short of”: KV 2/245/331b.
“It wasn’t a Jewish”: Hazel Barr quoted in Colin Holmes, Searching for Lord Haw-Haw: The Political Lives of William Joyce (London: Routledge, 2016), 53.
“These Fascist blackguards”: Farndale, Haw-Haw, 55.
“I was dragged”: Quoted in John Mahon, Harry Pollitt (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1976), 116.
“gently, rather like”: “Pollitt Case,” Times (London), April 24, 1925.
“in a great state”: “Glasgow Communist Office Raided,” Scotsman, May 4, 1925.
“a scene of desolation”: “Fascist Raid on ‘Sunday Worker’ Offices,” Sunday Worker, May 24, 1925.
“latent spark of aggression”: Knight, Gunmen’s Holiday, 42.
“interested in patriotic work”: Classified advertisement, Sussex Agricultural Express, December 7, 1923; Tom Bower, The Perfect English Spy (London: Heinemann, 1995), 26.
“secured information”: KV 3/57/48a.
“What we would like”: KV 2/3874/1.
“with a leaky”: Eric Roberts to Harry, February 10, 1969, Eric Roberts Papers.
“set my mind”: Ibid.
“Pied piper nature”: Bower, Perfect English Spy, 26.
“personal magnetism”: Eric Roberts to Harry, February 10, 1969, Eric Roberts Papers.
“an almost mystical figure”: Ex-MI5 officer quoted in Andrew, Defence of the Realm, 132.
“Every good agent”: KV 4/227/1a.
“He gave tremendous support”: Masters, The Man Who Was M, 146–147.
“In the strictest confidence”: John Rowlandson quoted in Mahon, Harry Pollitt, 117.
“a store of arms”: KV 3/57/3a.
“one of London’s”: J. G. Dickson (anonymously) in Union Jack, March 7, 1925.
“well organised”: KV 3/57/3a.
“members of H. M. Forces”: KV 3/57/58.
“desirable in this country”: KV 3/57/6.
“bring discredit”: KV 3/57/48.
“a shrewd old bugger”: Dick White to Barrie Penrose, July 15, 1985, quoted in Bower, Perfect English Spy, 27.
“makes an excellent impression”: Gill Bennett, Churchill’s Man of Mystery (London: Routledge, 2007), 129.
“clearly perfectly honest”: Ibid.
“one of the most”: Knight, Some of My Animals, 29.
“the best to be had”: Constance Kell, Secret Well Kept, IWM, PP/MCR/120 Reel 1.
“I knew her”: KV 2/1221/44a.
“as one of the county’s”: “Went Christmas Shopping, Died,” Daily Express, November 23, 1936.
“gentlemen with Eton ties”: Cass Canfield, Up and Down and Around (London: Collins, 1972), 87.
“in silence”: William Woodruff, The Road to Nab End (London: Hachette Digital, 1993).
“any attempt by”: G. H. Q. Council of The British Fascists, “The British Fascist Manifesto,” British Lion, October–November 1927.
“I regret very much”: Maxwell Knight, letter, British Lion, December, 1927.
“Conservatism with knobs on”: Arnold Leese, Out of Step (Guildford, United Kingdom: Arnold Leese, 1951), 49.
“a madly keen fisherman”: Desert Island Discs, BBC Home Service, June 28, 1965.
“reasons of health”: Maxwell Knight, letter, British Lion, December, 1927.
“to have lived with”: Guy Liddell Diaries, March 28, 1944, KV 4/193.
“ten years”: KV 2/1016/1101a.
“International Leninism”: Desmond Morton quoted in Bennett, Churchill’s Man of Mystery, 71.
“typical old-fashioned”: Unnamed friends quoted in ibid., 33.
“I have just heard”: Morton quoted in ibid., 128.
“With every passing month”: Morton quoted in Andrew, Defence of the Realm, 128.
“little ships”: Bower, Perfect English Spy, 26.
“whose personal honesty”: KV 4/227/1a.
“Was Major Morton”: Quoted in Bennett, Churchill’s Man of Mystery, 130.
“a worm”: Quoted in ibid.
“This is going to be”: Quoted in ibid.
“make his life”: Andrew, Defence of the Realm, 129.
“We have a government”: Quoted in Bennett, Churchill’s Man of Mystery, 130.
“outright warfare”: Ibid., 128.
“universal phenomenon”: Quoted in Stephen Dorril, Blackshirt (London: Penguin, 2006), 199.
“could not possibly”: Keith Jeffery, MI6 (London: Bloomsbury, 2011), 234.
“the danger of”: Ibid.
“I say, old thing”: Angus Macpherson, “Olga the Beautiful Spy,” Mail on Sunday, July 29, 1984.
“Gosh, Doll”: Ibid.
“Any woman who”: Bernard Newman, Inquest on Mata Hari (London: Robert Hale, 1956), 82.
“should never be”: Vernon Kell, Vernon Kell Papers, PP/MCR/120 Reel 1.
“A showpiece for”: “Now You See It, Now You Don’t,” Times Magazine, August 7, 1993.
“a little leg-pulling”: KV 2/1869/163a.
“she might stand”: KV 4/227/1a.
“Women do not make”: Vernon Kell, “Security Intelligence in War. Lecture Notes,” 1934, PP/MCR/120 Reel 1.
“It is frequently alleged”: KV 4/227/1a.
“The agent must trust”: KV 4/227/1a.
“A vivid imagination”: Eric Roberts to Harry, February 10, 1969, Eric Roberts Papers.
“best watcher”: John Le Carré, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (London: Sceptre, 2009), 12.
“There are few”: Maxwell Knight, A Cuckoo in the House (London: Methuen, 1955), 80.
“I have hand-reared”: Knight, Some of My Animals, 89.
“deserted or stray”: Maxwell Knight, Bird Gardening (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1954), 3.
“I have reared many”: Maxwell Knight, Maxwell Knight Replies (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1959), 67.
“fledglings fallen from”: Maxwell Knight, Animals After Dark (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1956), 92.
“crawling on hands”: Joan Miller, One Girl’s War (Dingle: Brandon, 1986), 49.
“beating out a tune”: Ibid., 50
“soothing words”: Maxwell Knight, Taming and Handling Animals (London: G. Bell & Sons, 1959), 104.
“the tone of the human voice”: Knight, Pets: Usual and Unusual, 33.
“hypnotic”: Miller, One Girl’s War, 16.
“dance, whistle”: Maxwell Knight, Talking Birds (London: G. Bell & Sons, 1961), 58.
“I didn’t have”: Masters, Man Who Was M, 49.
“like the den”: Macpherson, “Olga the Beautiful Spy.”
“It would make the squeak”: Maxwell Knight, Keeping Pets (Leicester, United Kingdom: Brockhampton, 1971), 25.
“the real ‘M’ organisation”: Dick Thistlethwaite, Unpublished Reminiscences.
“I state unhesitatingly”: KV 4/227/1a.
“The great thing”: Knight to Roberts, November 5, 1934, Eric Roberts Papers.
“The very best training”: KV 4/227/1a.
“should be disseminated”: KV 5/72/341c.
“H. G.”: History Sheet, December 4, 1934, KV 2/2021.
“facility in mastering”: Esther Potter, “Graham Pollard at Work,” The Library 11, no. 4 (December 1989).
“Pollard did not often”: Peter Quennell, The Marble Foot (London: Collins, 1976), 126.
“like a bookseller’s”: A. L. Rowse, A Cornishman at Oxford (London: Jonathan Cape, 1965), 82.
“A cuckoo is not”: Knight, A Cuckoo in the House, 5.
“These people have”: Quoted in Hugh Witford, The Mighty Wurlitzer (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008), 12.
“an ordinary, interested”: KV 4/227/1a.
“very shortly after”: Ibid.
“she had any free time”: Ibid.
“Form the habit”: Maxwell Knight, Be a Nature Detective (London: Frederick Warne, 1968), 169.
“a considerable amount”: KV 4/227/1a.
“Revolutionary vigilance”: “Touts and Spies,” Daily Worker, March 29, 1932.
“an acute attack”: KV 3/338/44b.
“an agent becomes”: KV 4/227/1a.
“coming into local”: History Sheet, February 9, 1932, KV 2/1599.
“Bishop is not”: History Sheet, February 15, 1932, KV 2/1599.
“might be pumped”: KV 2/2199/14x.
“very deaf”: KV 5/2/51x.
“rather an odd fish”: Barry Domvile Diary, January 11, 1939, NMM, Dom 55.
“quite agreeable”: Vivian Hancock-Nunn (as “Lucien Francis”), Two Worlds (London: Talbot’s Head, 1960), 78.
“haughty disdain”: Ibid., 77–78.
“engaged in some”: KV 2/3206/4a.
“anti-militarist work”: KV 2/3206/8.
“It is an immense safeguard”: KV 4/227/1a.
“my hat”: Knight, Gunmen’s Holiday, 96.
“about as reliable”: Maxwell Knight, Crime Cargo (London: Philip Allan, 1934), 1.
“a hundred similar ones”: Ibid., 160.
“They amused me”: Desert Island Discs, BBC Home Service, June 28, 1965.
“You are not”: Knight, Crime Cargo, 51.
“a decent, well-built”: Ibid., 12.
“very violent temper”: KV 2/245/1b.
“Order of the Fasces”: “Headquarter Orders,” British Fascism, Summer 1933.
“the usual joys”: Glading Papers, RGASPI, 495-198-1267-015.
“from 6 a.m.”: Ibid.
“a red-hot Communist”: KV 2/1034/12.
“be dismissed at”: KV 2/1020/9a.
“I refuse to renounce”: “Government Ban on Communists,” Manchester Guardian, October 23, 1928.
“We no longer”: Quoted in Richard Crossman, ed., The God That Failed (New York: Bantam, 1970), 62.
“Moscow-sympathizing”: Macpherson, “Olga the Beautiful Spy.”
“that she should rearrange”: KV 4/227/1a.
“The tempo of her work”: Ibid.
“Detective work”: Knight, Be a Nature Detective, 2.
“Never make it up”: John Le Carré, A Perfect Spy (London: Coronet, 1986), 234.
“position and prestige”: KV 4/227/1a.
“John Dickson Carr”: Masters, Man Who Was M, 52.
“initiated” into the “illegal section”: KV 2/2494/320a.
“specially trained”: Ibid.
“all incriminating documents”: History Sheet, February 28, 1933, KV 2/2801.
“Vivian Hancock-Nunn”: Wintringham papers, 4/3, Liddell Hart Centre Military Archive.
“grey people”: Private telephone interview with author, January 2016.
“how very happy”: Security Service Archives, quoted in Andrew, Defence of the Realm, 132.
“appear to be”: History Sheet, June 22, 1933, KV 2/1020.
“doggo”: KV 2/1035/89a.
“a ‘hero’ in an”: Home Office report, quoted in Dorril, Blackshirt, 247.
“the greatest Englishman”: Joyce quoted in Farndale, Haw-Haw, 81.
“You would not believe”: KV 2/1221/44a.
“one of the dozen finest”: Quoted in Farndale, Haw-Haw, 72.
“a psychopathic expression”: Francis Selwyn, Hitler’s Englishman (London: Penguin, 1993), 48.
“whether the time”: HO 45/25386/54-9.
“MI5 should undertake”: KV 4/140/1x.
“quite reliable”: KV 3/53/1c.
“a motor salesman”: Quoted in Liddell Diaries, August 10, 1940, KV 4/186.
“there have undoubtedly been”: KV 4/111.
“The Comintern remained”: Andrew, Defence of the Realm, 190.
“insists on the common”: KV 3/58/161a.
“the last of the great”: Dorril, Blackshirt, 286
“in distinct opposition”: KV 4/331/1z.
“no evidence whatsoever”: KV 3/53/1c.
M’s original spymaster, “Don”: KV 3/53/1c and KV 3/53/1e.
“a far more reliable source”: KV 3/53/1e.
“It is considered”: Ibid.
“special mission”: History Sheet, January 25, 1938, KV 2/1022.
“With very becoming self-restraint”: KV 4/227/1a.
“a time of the year”: Ibid.
“themselves as being”: Ibid.
“a secret agent”: Ibid.
“drift along with”: Knight to Roberts, October 23, 1934, Eric Roberts Papers.
“Baldy McGurk”: Knight, Crime Cargo, 195.
“long hand-made cigarettes”: Miller, One Girl’s War, 16.
“my ally”: Knight, Some of My Animals, 16.
“encouraged me in”: Desert Island Discs, BBC Home Service, June 28, 1965.
“a keen naturalist”: Maxwell Knight, Pets and Their Problems (London: Heinemann, 1968), 2.
“a good library”: Ibid.
“a sensible and rather”: Knight, Pets: Usual and Unusual, 76.
“never threatened anything”: Maxwell Knight, My Pet Friends (London: Frederick Warne, 1964), 54.
“tried almost too hard”: Quoted in Masters, Man Who Was M, 15.
“of Sherlock Holmes”: “First Edition Forgeries,” Times (London), June 29, 1934.
“a superb piece”: Robert Harling, Ian Fleming, Kindle ed. (London: Robson Press, 2015), chap. 1.
“perhaps the most dramatic”: “Mr Graham Pollard,” Times (London), November 16, 1976.
“first notorious”: “Graham Pollard,” The Book Collector (London), Spring 1977.
“vile little boat”: Angus Macpherson, “Olga the Beautiful Spy,” Mail on Sunday, July 29, 1984.
“was the only single girl”: Masters, Man Who Was M, 34.
“riotous mob”: Weekly Report, May 19, 1934, IOR/L/PJ/12/137/50.
“render all the aid”: Report of the Director, June 9, 1934, IOR/L/PJ/12/137/62.
“the first time”: Masters, Man Who Was M, 34.
“I started my education”: Glading Papers, RGASPI, 495-198-1267-009.
“the down to earth”: Roberts to Harry, February 10, 1969, Eric Roberts Papers.
“In all approaches”: Knight, Pets and Their Problems, 92.
“I shall be very”: Knight to Roberts, June 7, 1934, Eric Roberts Papers.
“I am anxious”: Knight to Roberts, August 16, 1934, Eric Roberts Papers.
“Very many thanks”: Knight to Roberts, October 5, 1934, Eric Roberts Papers.
“How would that”: Ibid.
“no purely mercenary agent”: KV 4/227/1a.
“We should like”: Knight to Roberts, October 22, 1934, Eric Roberts Papers.
“It is not necessary”: Knight to Roberts, October 23, 1934, Eric Roberts Papers.
“I cannot give”: Ibid.
“Do not be disturbed”: Knight to Roberts, November 5, 1934, Eric Roberts Papers.
“Very many thanks”: Ibid.
“an excellent report”: Knight to Roberts, November 13, 1934, Eric Roberts Papers.
“to be unduly”: Ibid.
“May I again emphasise”: Knight to Roberts, November 19, 1934, Eric Roberts Papers.
“the sister-in-law of Miss H. B.”: KV 2/1012/18c.
“the sister-in-law of Miss T-H”: Rita Retallick to Eric Roberts, May 31, 1935, Eric Roberts Papers.
“very tricky”: Knight to Roberts, January 24, 1935, Eric Roberts Papers.
“Up to date”: Ibid.
“You’re always saying”: Le Carré, A Perfect Spy, 74.
“a novel for that large”: Undated publicity material, Philip Allan.
hailed as “readable”: M. W., “Piracy in Bias Bay Style,” Straits Times, March 1, 1935.
“thriller with a”: Tom Driberg, “William Hickey,” Daily Express, September 27, 1934.
“Knight—lean, long-beaked”: Ibid.
“I rather liked”: Roberts to Harry, February 10, 1969, Eric Roberts Papers.
“I am always glad”: Knight to Roberts, February 11, 1935, Eric Roberts Papers.
“a rabid anti-Catholic”: KV 2/245/1b.
“one of the most”: Mary Kenny, Germany Calling (Dublin: New Island, 2003), 122.
“For your own private information”: Knight to Roberts, January 24, 1935, Eric Roberts Papers.
“the impression that”: History Sheet, January 28, 1935, KV 2/245.
“M. thought this remark”: History Sheet, February 20, 1935, KV 2/245.
“I was approached”: History Sheet, January 25, 1938, KV 2/1022.
“No official or other”: KV 4/227/1a.
“was too much”: Ibid.
“The work was”: History Sheet, January 25, 1938, KV 2/1022.
“stitching reports into”: Macpherson, “Olga the Beautiful Spy.”
“most valuable information”: KV 4/227/1a.
“explained how the cipher”: Nigel West, Mask (London: Routledge, 2005), 21.
“an honest Communist”: Macpherson, “Olga the Beautiful Spy.”
“was a very nice man”: Masters, Man Who Was M, 35.
“had been sleeping”: Ted Crawford footnote in Harry Wicks, An Unpublished Chapter from Harry Wicks’s Autobiography, ed. Ted Crawford, http://www.cix.co.uk/~jplant/revhist/supplem/wicksind.htm.
“It is important to stress”: KV 4/227/1a.
“A clever woman”: Ibid.
“She’s Olga Pulloffski”: Written by Bert Lee and R. P. Weston. Lyrics accessed at http://lyricsplayground.com/alpha/songs/o/olgapulloffskithebeautifulspy.shtml on September 10, 2012, and transcribed by Mark MacNamara in November 2003.
“Some ‘superior’ people”: Knight, Taming and Handling Animals, 53.
“looking over your shoulder”: Valerie Lippay, telephone interview with author, May 2014.
“he was told”: Sean Rayment, “Traumatised MI5 Spy Fights Murder Verdict,” Sunday Times, March 13, 2016.
“I informed the officer”: History Sheet, January 25, 1938, KV 2/1022.
“As may be”: KV 4/227/1a.
“in an agent context”: Roberts to Harry, February 10, 1969, Eric Roberts Papers.
“On instructions”: History Sheet, January 25, 1938, KV 2/1022.
“Mind Britain’s Business”: Dorril, Blackshirt, 354.
“the Fascist party in this country”: Transcript of Rex v. Tyler Gatewood Kent, MS 310/1/1/10.
“grim determination”: Quoted in Dorril, Blackshirt, 390.
“a genuine statement”: Quoted in ibid., 368.
“an imitation strategist”: Quoted in Farndale, Haw-Haw, 83.
“it is not thought”: KV 2/245/1b.
“very acute sciatica”: Dr. Boyall to Dr. Warner, November 21, 1936, COR/LW/1936/154.
“unwilling to accept”: Ibid.
gray shirt studs for “L.”: G. Knight Shopping List, COR/LW/1936/154.
death was called a “riddle”: “Riddle of Dying Woman in Club,” Daily Mail, November 21, 1936.
“mysterious affair”: “Wealthy Woman Found Dying,” Dundee Courier, November 23, 1936.
“to elucidate if”: “Former Resident of Sherborne,” Western Gazette, December 25, 1936.
“Sweetheart”: “Death of Author’s Wife,” Times (London), December 18, 1936.
“was to be a prison warden”: Masters, Man Who Was M, 79.
“an instant dislike”: Bower, Perfect English Spy, 26.
“a devoted communist”: File STEPHAN, No. 32826, Vol. 1, pp. 15–16, quoted in Nigel West, The Crown Jewels (London: HarperCollins, 1998), 123.
“bumptious”: KV 2/804/2a.
“Percy Glading is the comrade”: KV 2/2494/325b.
“seemed to be somewhat”: KV 2/1021/202a.
“To be quite frank”: KV 4/227/1a.
“the bravest girl”: S. S. Birch, “Britain’s Bravest Girl Traps Russ Master Spy,” Telegram, April 23, 1949.
“M’s ability to instil”: Miller, One Girl’s War, 16.
“very unscientific”: Quoted in West, Crown Jewels, 149.
“was to put the whole”: Roberts to Harry, February 10, 1969, Eric Roberts Papers.
“polite conversation”: KV 4/227/1a.
“Aged about 45”: KV 2/1008/1a.
“The purpose of the meeting”: KV 4/227/1a.
“They were clearly foreigners”: Masters, Man Who Was M, 45.
“very self-assured”: KV 2/1004/1b.
“decidedly nervous regarding”: KV 2/1004/1d.
“very jumpy”: Quoted in Masters, Man Who Was M, 63.
“live on a volcano”: Quoted in David Burke, The Spy Who Came in from the Co-op (Woodbridge, United Kingdom: Boydell, 2008), 90.
“is obviously regarded”: Ibid.
“a large oblong parcel”: Masters, Man Who Was M, 45.
“active and dangerous”: KV 2/1020/21b.
“for his deficiencies”: KV 3/220/31a.
“there is strong evidence”: Ellen Radley, email to author, December 17, 2015.
“spy who goes alone”: C. W. Sykes, Secrets of Modern Spying (London: John Hamilton 1930), 9.
“a very reliable informant”: KV 3/59/241a.
“I was immediately attracted”: Masters, Man Who Was M, 78.
“the charm this smiling man”: Miller, One Girl’s War, 16, 44.
“Be confident and unafraid”: Knight, Pets: Usual and Unusual, 34.
“for your confidence”: Ibid., 29–30.
“shattered”: Masters, Man Who Was M, 79.
“thinks differently”: A. P. Herbert, Dolphin Square (London: Haxwell, Watson & Viney, 1935), 4.
“I have myself felt”: Maxwell Knight, Animals and Ourselves (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1962), 16.
“Failure to do this”: Knight, Taming and Handling Animals, 92.
“It was extremely”: Harry Smith, interview with author, London, January 2016.
“Joyce, to my mind”: KV 2/245/24a.
“from an informant”: KV 2/2145/25a.
“Joyce has a well organised”: Knight to Roberts, January 24, 1935, Eric Roberts Collection.
“seriously handicapped”: John Curry, The Security Service 1908–1945 (Kew, United Kingdom: Public Record Office, 1999), 393.
“was growing morose”: KV 2/245/60a.
“I should not think”: KV 2/245/1b.
“aim and ambition”: History Sheet, January 17, 1938, KV 2/1022.
“Sample of the tempting”: “Miss X,” Time, March 28, 1938.
“Britain’s counter-espionage”: “Foreigner Named by British Agent,” Baltimore Sun, February 12, 1938.
“stylish”: “Stylish ‘Miss X’ Tells of Trapping British Arms Spy,” Washington Post, February 8, 1938.
“black two-piece”: “Girl Tells of Net in British Spy Case,” Atlanta Constitution, February 8, 1938.
“slim,” “blonde”: “Woman Turns Spy to Foil Plot to Steal British Arms Secrets,” Atlanta Constitution, February 4, 1938.
“Fair-haired”: “Aircraft and Gun Plans,” Manchester Guardian, February 4, 1938.
“exceptionally pretty”: “Miss X,” Time, March 28, 1938.
“a real spy hunt”: Sam Brewer, “Joins with Red Plotters, Then Tips War Office,” Chicago Tribune, February 4, 1938.
“many fictional trials”: T. J. Hamilton, “British Spy Case Tinged with Irony,” New York Times, February 13, 1938.
“Was there ever”: Editorial, “Miss X,” Atlanta Constitution, February 12, 1938.
“asked her if she”: Quoted in Masters, Man Who Was M, 69.
“Big, blue eyes”: H. J. J. Sargint, “Spy Fighters Guard Name of ‘Miss X,’” Atlanta Constitution, February 10, 1938.
“would not be surprised”: March 23, 1938, KV 2/1793.
“was whisked away”: “‘Miss X’ Describes Capture of Spies,” New York Times, February 8, 1938.
“I wanted to get”: Masters, Man Who Was M, 72–73.
“nasty fingers”: S. S. Birch, “Britain’s Bravest Girl Traps Russ Master Spy,” Telegram, April 23, 1949.
“Spy Fighters Guard”: H. J. J. Sargint, “Spy Fighters Guard Name of ‘Miss X,’” Atlanta Constitution, February 10, 1938.
“Miss G.”: KV 2/2159/52a; Washington Post, February 4, 1938.
“the comparatively small”: “Charges Under Official Secrets Act,” Manchester Guardian, March 15, 1938.
“with the sole and vulgar”: Ibid.
“I think that young woman”: Ibid.
“the closest enquiries”: KV 2/2159/52a.
“leading pre-war penetration”: Andrew, Defence of the Realm, 220.
“An organised ‘spy hunt’”: KV 3/391/217a.
“the most exhaustive investigations”: KV 3/234/11a.
“Honours”: Speech Day, Stamford Girls’ High School, 1907 and 1910.
“This girl is a rather”: Security Services Archive quoted in Andrew, Defence of the Realm, 182.
“it is also certain”: Ibid.
“Party work” was so important: Ibid., 183.
“Suppose you can draw”: Knight, Be a Nature Detective, 16.
“very small feet”: Geoffrey Elliott, Gentleman Spymaster (London: Methuen, 2011), 73.
“I’ve been rather”: Burke, The Spy Who Came in from the Co-op, 2.
“sooner or later”: Quoted in Martin Pugh, We Danced All Night (London: Vintage, 2009), 441.
“Though willing to work”: KV 2/1280/1.
“an extremely level-headed”: KV 2/1280/6.
“as a sort of”: KV 2/1280/8.
“financial starvation”: KV 4/227/1a.
“the Ghetto descendants”: E. G. Mandeville-Roe, Financiers (London: Steven Books, 2002), 4–5.
“no officer can efficiently”: KV 4/227/1a.
“I shall always endeavour”: Knight to Roberts, November 12, 1934, Eric Roberts Papers.
“be at the beck-and-call”: KV 4/227/1a.
“The officer will”: Ibid.
“Joyce’s loyalty can be”: KV 2/245/62x.
“but I am convinced”: Ibid.
“For God’s sake”: KV 2/245/96e.
“personal introductions to”: KV 5/2/51x.
“I must admit”: August 15, 1939, KV 5/2/135b.
“What a very beautiful view”: Ibid.
“very honoured one”: Ibid.
“like waiting a doctor’s verdict”: Virginia Woolf, August 28, 1939, The Diary of Virginia Woolf, Vol. 5, ed. Anne Olivier Bell (London: Hogarth, 1985), 231.
“excellent work”: KV 2/1280/113.
“highly regarded by the Germans”: B1a to SIS, January 7, 1944, KV 2/1278.
“very pleased”: KV 3/393/327d.
“very clear”: William Joyce, Twilight Over England (Berlin: Internationaler Verlag, 1940), 11.
“Defence Regulations would”: J. A. Cole, Lord Haw-Haw (London: Faber, 1987), 86.
“the biggest danger”: Bill Grieg quoted in Farndale, Haw-Haw, 180.
“secret service” officer: KV 2/245/179x.
“did not rate democracy”: Christopher Lee, “M Is for Maxwell Knight,” BBC Radio 4, broadcast on January 27, 2009.
“if I had to choose”: E. M. Forster, “What I Believe,” Two Cheers for Democracy (London: Edward Arnold, 1951), 68.
“Gloomy, darkened and lifeless”: Gabriel Gorodetsky, ed., The Maisky Diaries (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2015), 225.
“One begins to wonder”: Liddell Diaries, December 1, 1939, KV 4/185.
“called upon to show”: Liddell Diaries, August 30, 1939, KV 4/185.
“old-fashioned liberalism”: Liddell Diaries, May 25, 1940, KV 4/186.
“Our tradition is that”: F. H. Hinsley and C. A. G. Simkins, British Intelligence in the Second World War, Vol. 4 (London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1990), 57–58.
“laughable”: Guy Liddell, Memorandum, 1942, KV 4/170.
“The liberty of the subject”: Liddell Diaries, May 25, 1940, KV 4/186.
“I telephoned to Mrs. Ramsay”: KV 2/902/62a.
“If you could help”: Ibid.
“I made no promise”: Ibid.
“that instructions have now”: KV 3/393/327c.
“there was no question”: KV 2/245/179x.
“Yes, I think when”: KV 2/677/141a.
Duke of Wellington, Lord Carnegie: The Red Book, 1369/1.
“a staunch Nazi”: KV 2/840/76x.
“displaying pro-Nazi”: KV 2/840/4c.
“a fine example”: Quoted in Bryan Clough, State Secrets (Hove, United Kingdom: Hideaway, 2005), 109.
“suddenly immobilized”: Miller, One Girl’s War, 50.
“there was little difference”: KV 2/1343/84a.
“ludicrous”: HO 283/40/22.
“several aristocratic Russian”: KV 2/2258/92b.
“I noticed that”: KV 2/902/62a.
“the Hon. John”: Adam Sisman, John Le Carré (London: Bloomsbury, 2015), 200.
“set himself the task”: KV 4/227/1a.
“a thing much to be desired”: KV 4/331/9.
“in the throes of”: Miller, One Girl’s War, 52.
“It is difficult to imagine”: KV 4/227/1a.
“practically three hours”: KV 2/677/141a.
“the little Storm Trooper”: KV 2/841/140c.
“Anna Wolkoff used to tell”: KV 2/8839/36a.
“as it was considered”: KV 2/1212/19a.
“Anna Wolkoff claims”: Ibid.
“Wolkoff is in contact”: KV 2/840/14a.
“If by any chance”: KV 2/840/11x.
“the character and temperament”: KV 4/227/1a.
“Wolkoff, like many Russians”: Ibid.
“to a remarkable degree”: KV 4/227/1a.
Now he planned to harness: Ibid.
“No war was being”: Quoted in Pugh, We Danced All Night, 443.
“our time is approaching”: HO 45/24895/3-4.
“Fellowship of the Services”: Liddell Diaries, March 11, 1940, KV 4/186.
“that Geary was trying”: HO 45/23775.
“young man employed”: KV 4/227/1a.
“that this man is”: KV 2/840/20d.
“It was a real pleasure”: KV 2/840/20a.
“I hope I am right”: Ibid.
“Dear Captain King”: KV 2/840/20cdd.
“pedigree”: KV 2/902/79a.
“to work against the Jews”: KV 2/543/38x.
“John Kent”: KV 2/543/1ab.
“One of those intensely”: Malcolm Muggeridge, Chronicles of Wasted Time, Vol. 2 (London: Collins, 1973), 108.
“The sooner you shoot”: KV 2/543/37d.
“actively taking part”: Rex v. Kent, MS 310/1/1/10.
“Part of my function”: Interview with Robert Harris, BBC Newsnight, December 3, 1982.
“bulky”: KV 2/543/1z.
“do incalculable harm”: KV 4/227/1a.
“were not being adequately informed”: Rex v. Kent, MS 310/1/1/10.
“a smart woman”: Quoted in John Costello, Ten Days to Destiny (New York: William Morrow, 1991), 111.
“pleasant, politically stupid”: KV 2/840/69a.
“Herr W. B. Joyce”: KV 2/543/43x.
“Why didn’t you tell”: KV 2/902/62a.
“I replied that I”: Ibid.
“I explained that I”: Ibid.
“I replied that it might”: Ibid.
“a single sheet of quarto”: Ibid.
“She resealed the letter”: Ibid.
“Certain arrangements were then”: KV 4/227/1a.
“our principal agent”: KV 4/227/1a.
“confidential information about”: KV 2/840/29b.
“information which [he] had”: KV 4/227/1a.
“close to collapse”: Andrew, Defence of the Realm, 222.
“strongly of the opinion”: Liddell Diaries, May 7, 1940, KV 4/186.
“It will be interesting”: Liddell Diaries, May 11, 1940, KV 4/186.
“An elephant keeper”: Liddell Diaries, May 12, 1940, KV 4/186.
“the slightest doubt”: Ibid.
“very concerned”: Ibid.
“severely strained”: Hinsley and Simkins, British Intelligence in the Second World War, 39.
“It was a joke”: Rex v. Kent, MS 310/1/1/10.
“name like a tin”: KV 2/841/140c.
fifty “of your older destroyers”: Quoted in James Leutze, “The Secret of the Churchill-Roosevelt Correspondence: September 1939–May 1940,” Journal of Contemporary History 10 (1975): 465–491.
“It is understood”: May 16, 1940, KV 2/840/49a.
“unimpeachable source”: Hans Georg von Mackensen quoted in Strix, “The Golden Egg,” The Spectator, October 26, 1956, 17.
“We said that as a”: Liddell Diaries, May 17, 1940, KV 4/186.
“Action should also be”: CAB 65/7, (40) 139.
“During wartime”: KV 4/227/1a.
“profoundly shocked”: Rex v. Kent, MS 310/1/1/10.
“will act with great care”: KV 2/543/8a.
“Captain M. King”: Quoted in Paul Willetts, Rendez-vous at the Russian Tea Rooms (London: Constable, 2015), 471.
“the news has been”: Liddell Diaries, May 22, 1940, KV 4/186.
“old-fashioned poacher”: Maxwell Knight, The Senses of Animals (London: Museum Press, 1963), 106.
“M certainly never minded”: Miller, One Girl’s War, 106.
“examined” “many”: KV 2/545/128a.
“in the event of its being”: KV 2/840/57c.
“one would not expect you”: KV 2/543/22a.
“what the suspect says”: Knight, Gunmen’s Holiday, 258.
“M. explained to him”: Liddell Diaries, May 21, 1940, KV 4/186.
“considerably shaken”: Ibid.
“our policy with regard to”: Liddell Diaries, June 12, 1940, KV 4/186.
“It seems that the Prime Minister”: Guy Liddell quoted in Hinsley and Simkins, British Intelligence in the Second World War, 52.
“mortified” by the extent: Hugh Trevor-Roper, The Secret World (London: I. B. Tauris, 2014), 133.
“great contact”: Ex-MI5 officer quoted in Masters, Man Who Was M, 162.
“I’d like to impress on you”: KV 2/1221/44a.
“almost a major catastrophe”: Fred L. Israel, ed., The War Diary of Breckinridge Long (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1966), 113.
“might implicate the chief”: Ibid., 114.
looking “dapper”: “Diplomat and Woman on Secrets Charges,” Daily Sketch, October 25, 1940.
“complimented each of the two”: KV 4/227/1a.
“congratulated all the agents”: Ibid.
“The lawyer told me”: KV 2/839/36a.
“The real reason why”: KV 2/2474/142.
“The agent provocateur”: Quoted in Nicholas Hiley and Julian Putkowski, “A Postscript on P.M.S.2,” Intelligence and National Security 3, no. 2 (April 1988).
“In a very mild sense”: Liddell Diaries, October 4, 1943, KV 4/192.
“The duties of a Security Service”: Vernon Kell, Vernon Kell Papers, PP/MCR/120 Reel 1.
“actively ran and controlled”: J. C. Masterman, The Double-Cross System (Guilford, CT: Lyons, 2000) 3.
“was acquired in the school”: KV 4/88/2a.
“The only thing to do”: Liddell Diaries, August 8, 1940, KV 4/186.
“I was given permission”: KV 4/227/1a.
“deplorable, both from the sex”: Liddell Diaries, March 28, 1944, KV 4/193.
“M’s attitude to paperwork”: Miller, One Girl’s War, 66.
“laxity of control”: Liddell Diaries, March 25, 1944, KV 4/193.
“tremendous leader”: Quoted by Masters, Man Who Was M, 101.
“We adored him”: Ibid., 146–147.
“clucked round like a mother”: Ibid., 147.
“held in some awe”: Nigel West, MI5 (London: Triad Granada, 1983), 154.
“an explorer of world-wide”: KV 4/227/1a.
“present as a treasonable conversation”: Liddell Diaries, January 18, 1942, KV 4/189.
“had become very uneasy”: Quoted in Jeremy Lewis, Shades of Greene (London: Vintage, 2011), 297.
“what is fatal in”: Knight, Be a Nature Detective, 7.
“if you are going to tell”: Miller, One Girl’s War, 34.
“a low point”: Ex-MI5 officer, email correspondence with author, January 2016.
“I have unlimited trust”: KV 2/899/54b.
“were the favourite topic”: W. J. West, Truth Betrayed (London: Duckworth, 1987), 216–217.
“That boy will either do”: Quoted in Farndale, Haw-Haw, 48.
“In dealing with Communism”: KV 4/227/1a.
“The Russians are very patient”: Derek Tangye, The Way to Minack (Bath, United Kingdom: Cedric Chivers, 1979), 247.
“perhaps the best informed”: KV 3/397/454a.
“But he did not have”: Harry Smith, interview with author, London, January 2016.
“Neither Hollis nor I”: Liddell Diaries, October 6, 1942, KV 4/190.
“In our insularity”: Trevor-Roper, Secret World, 80–81.
“bewildered when faced by”: Tangye, Way to Minack, 183.
“the old cloak and dagger”: Liddell Diaries, October 24, 1944, KV 4/195.
“the most successful penetration agent”: Andrew, Defence of the Realm, 401.
“part of the furniture”: Security Service Archive quoted in Andrew, Defence of the Realm, 401.
“Pied Piper”: Quoted in Sisman, John Le Carré, 130.
“a tweedy, unscalable English”: Le Carré, A Perfect Spy, 273.
“a handsome English warlord”: Ibid., 277.
“was country stock”: Ibid., 212.
“He was as broad as”: Ibid., 72.
“its retreat into bureaucracy”: Ibid., 214.
“desk jockeys”: Ibid., 236.
“like an old grey bird”: Ibid., 306.
“the grand old man”: Ibid., 295.
“with his reputation”: Ibid., 214.
“The Firm should have”: Ibid., 212.
“They shared a contempt”: Francis Wheen, Tom Driberg (London: Fourth Estate, 1990), 309.
“some preliminary briefing by us”: KV 2/4116/791a.
“when it came to ‘cottages’”: Wheen, Tom Driberg, 311.
“News that even MI5”: Daily Mail advertisement, Evening News, September 19, 1956.
“Driberg has committed”: KV 2/4117/826b.
“a kind of official urinal”: Quoted in Peter Gill and Mark Phythian, Intelligence in an Insecure World (Cambridge: Polity, 2006), 11.
“BURGESS BURNS HIS”: Chapman Pincher, “Burgess Burns His Boats,” Daily Express, November 23, 1956.
“has a dog and a cat”: KV 2/4117/871z.
“film shows and lectures”: Quoted from Look and Learn, accessed at http://www.lookandlearn.com/childrens-newspaper/CN650410-012.pdf on June 8, 2016.
“there might still be persons”: KV 2/1017/1105a.
he had named “Olga”: Knight, Some of My Animals, 43–44.
“The only time I realised”: Desmond Morris, telephone interview with author, February 2015.
“an avuncular, friendly old”: “Desmond Morris: Oral History Transcription,” interview by Christopher Parsons, September 6, 2000, transcript, WildFilmHistory, Bristol, United Kingdom.
“On the whole casualties”: Knight, My Pet Friends, viii.
“Spaniels, Labradors”: Ibid., 24.
“an excellent house-dog”: Knight, Some of My Animals, 94.
“all the species of crow”: Ibid., 90–91.
“I made it a rule”: Maxwell Knight, Field Work for Young Naturalists (London: G. Bell & Sons, 1966), 173.
“Spiders have always”: Knight, Some of My Animals, 128.
“It will be apparent that”: Knight, Bird Gardening, 69.
“I have had jackdaws”: Maxwell Knight, Letters to a Young Naturalist (London: Collins, 1955), 56.
“a good hiding”: Knight, Animals and Ourselves, 20.
“the constant and usually ill-informed”: Ibid.
“that field naturalists must”: Knight, Be a Nature Detective, 2.
“His books emphasized”: John Cooper, interview with author, London, December 2015.
“if that doesn’t sound”: Maxwell Knight to Nancy, November 24, 1958, BBC Written Archives.
“If only he could have”: Quoted in Masters, Man Who Was M, 163.
“human sex-maniacs”: Knight, How to Keep an Elephant, 61.
“I myself must plead”: Knight, Some of My Animals, 37.
“supposed to be people”: Knight, Bird Gardening, 1–2.
“she would suddenly appear”: Knight, Some of My Animals, 51.
“friendly leg-pulling”: Knight, Pets: Usual and Unusual, 13.
“are left with memories”: Leonard Harrison Matthews in Knight, Pets and Their Problems, vii.
“I must issue a word”: Maxwell Knight, The Young Field Naturalist’s Guide (London: Richard Clay and Co., 1952), 39.
“lots of men in brown felt hats”: Harry Smith, interview with author, London, January 2016.
“had a hugely significant impact”: T. Denham for the director general, letter to the author, September 28, 2015.
“he demonstrated the importance”: Ex-MI5 officer, email correspondence with author, January 2016.
“a woman’s intuition”: KV 4/227/1a.
“most intuitive intelligence officers”: Lee, “M Is for Maxwell Knight,” BBC Radio 4.
“I see no object in life”: Hancock-Nunn (as “Lucien Francis”), Two Worlds, 190.
“a familiar, vast and unforgettable”: “R.C.C.,” Letters, Times, December 30, 1972.
“I looked on myself”: Roberts to Harry, February 10, 1969, Eric Roberts Papers.
“I still get nightmares”: Roberts to Harry, October 1967, Eric Roberts Papers.
“Six years of work”: Ibid.
“In Great Britain”: KV 4/227/1a.