Spymaster: The Life of Britain's Most Decorated Cold War Spy and Head of MI6, Sir Maurice Oldfield

Product Information

In addition, its floor can be covered with matting to provide a surface suitable for games of bowls. Sir Anthony said that the Royal Ulster Constabulary, MI6, MI5, the British Ministry of Defence, the Northern Ireland Office and the Belfast County Borough Welfare Committee and Department, and its successor, the Eastern Health and Social Services Board, would be investigated. Sir Anthony noted how some concerns have been expressed by some that the ability of this inquiry to investigate matters relating to Kincora is handicapped by the absence of powers of compulsion. “The inquiry has powers of compulsion which it does not hesitate to rely on if necessary,” he said. Gerry Moriarty I hope real players will start learning and experimenting with music. It’s so easy to make music now that sounds as good as any. AI [artificial intelligence] music creation software will be the next big thing – give it two or three notes and it will make this incredible thing, all part of the perfect music mulch that everybody eats. You have these fantastic synthesisers now where you press a button and it’s instantly fireworks, but it’s just a preset that a whole floor of programmers somewhere in Japan spent a whole month working on and the end user just has to tap one note. To the uninitiated, it seems like magic. You have to convince young people you can do it yourself – you don’t just have to press a few buttons. There is an alternative, and Return To Ommadawn is an example.

After the defection of Kim Philby in 1963, the CIA-MI6 liaison relationship cooled sharply, and Oldfield came to rely increasingly on a social relationship with James Angleton. [29] Deputy Head of MI6 Robert and Helen Grigor-Taylor ran the hotel as a free house from 1981 to 2011, before handing over the responsibility to their daughter Alice. Although Alice has a degree in History, she was delighted to be given the opportunity to become a pub landlady at the age of 29.Maurice Oldfield joined MI6 and became Deputy Chief of the SIS in 1967, rising to chief in 1973. [3] Under Oldfield "operations were to strictly controlled and scrupulous in their adherence to the wishes of the Government. Oldfield's unique style brought a refreshing blast of fresh air through the corridors of Century House, the SIS multi-story glass and concrete headquarters in south London." [4] Under his leadership, SIS objectives were widened to reflect increasing demand for commercial intelligence, escepially on the USA, Britain's European partners, Japan and the Middle East oil states. [4] Wilson Plot

On the outside wall of the chancel, there is a memorial to another notable resident of the village. Some in the RUC also tried to uncover it but were stymied. Whoever was stopping further activity had a lot of influence.”.. This takes the form of a sundial that bears a dedication to ‘Janet’, who was the daughter of A P Wadsworth, the distinguished editor of the Manchester Guardian from 1944 to his death in 1956. When the family returned it was to find Sir Maurice in tears – the first time any of them had ever seen the inscrutable spymaster cry. “Mrs Thatcher asked me if I was homosexual,” he told his brother, Joe. “I had to tell her.”Well, I can tell him there was a lot of information on Kincora, but people who know about it are dying and files may be destroyed. This is the last big opportunity to put Kincora and the other children’s home allegations to rest for good.” A few minutes before midday on Bank Holiday Monday, August 27, 1979, the tranquil calm of the Co Sligo fishing village of Mullaghmore was suddenly shattered when an explosion ripped apart a small fishing boat, the Shadow V. The blast, caused by a 50lb bomb that had been planted on the boat by the Provisional IRA and detonated by remote control, claimed the life of perhaps the most high-profile victim of the Troubles — the Queen’s cousin, Lord Louis Mountbatten. Also killed in the explosion were the Dowager Lady Brabourne, Mountbatten’s grandson Nicholas Knatchbull and Paul Maxwell, a 15-year-old local boat boy. Overcoming strained RUC-Army relations was seen to be the biggest challenge facing Oldfield. But much of this problem resolved itself just two months after his arrival, when Creasey retired in December 1979 and was replaced by Lt-Gen Richard Lawson, who was reported to be fully committed to police primacy and enjoyed good relations with his RUC counterparts.

Yes. I didn't know Greene well, but I knew him over a period. We had one of those public quarrels that Greene was quite addicted to and I didn't mind. I don't think the relationship between Alec and Greene endured very long. With Greene, a relationship had to move. With Alec, it didn't. But they had Catholicism in common, and, at a certain level, they met on that. They got to know each other quite well during the making of Our Man in Havana, and Alec always remembered, with enormous admiration, the speed with which Greene would re-write his lines for him. I don't know where the director was in that, but I should think he was having a fit.

 Alastair Ross Goobey CBE

Can you tell me something else? I've seen people do that [he mimes someone drinking], and I've seen people do that [he mimes again], but I've never seen anyone do this [he mimes again]. Do you think he's looking for the dregs of poison?" The conviction was later quashed in the light of new forensic and other evidence that raised serious questions about the dubious nature of the evidence used to convict Wallace initially. The journalist Paul Foot, in his book Who framed Colin Wallace?, suggested that Wallace may have been framed for the killing, possibly to discredit the allegations he was making. This view was similarly expressed by Alex Carlile QC (now Lord Carlile), who later speculated that this may have been the motive not just for the alleged frameup, but also for murder. The IRA) are continually learning from mistakes and developing their expertise,” Glover wrote. “We can, therefore, expect to see increasing professionalism and the greater exploitation of modern technology for terrorist purposes.” I don't otherwise know how the relationship worked between them. With Alec you had to function on very military lines: you arrived on time, or a minute before, properly dressed, and you left at 11:15. These were the rules he lived by. One of the things Alec and I had in common was that feeling of living on enemy territory. Home is a very dangerous place. He loved the dissembler's part. I mentioned actor's guilt; I think that, because he had no centre himself, to play the part of a man like Smiley - who can enter one shell after another - was a very strong refuge for him. Socially, he was exactly the same. What you got, you could only communicate with in subtext. There was never a moment when he let his hair down and became a more frank person. Not in my experience, anyway.