• The Spy Who Loved Nature: Maxwell Knight’s Legacy Beyond MI5

    The Spy Who Loved Nature: Maxwell Knight’s Legacy Beyond MI5

    Inspired by Simon King’s talk at The Maxwell Knight symposium. In the clandestine corridors of MI5, Maxwell Knight, the original ‘M’, was a living legend. His secret intelligence service prowess during the inter-war years and WWII is well-documented, with a flair for counter-subversion that helped infiltrate the British fascist movement and prevent Nazi sympathiser espionage…

  • Smiley is back

    Smiley is back

    John Le Carre’s master spy is making what the author says will be his last appearance in a novel in A Legacy of Spies. If you missed James Naughtie’s moving interview with John le Carré on the Today Programme at 07:40 this morning, it’s available here. He referred to his colleagues “Max Knight and John Bingham”.…