By 'M': Maxwell Knight, MI5’s greatest spymaster and the original 'Nature Detective'
Maxwell Knight was amongst the first - if not the first - to coin the phrase 'nature detective' before the Second World War; however, he would have been the first to admit that his natural history forefathers had literally risked life and limb detecting fauna and flora as skilfully recorded in Richard Conniff's book The Species [...]
Q: Who has been the most inspiring influence on your professional career? A: THE BBC NATURALIST AND BROADCASTER, MAJOR MAXWELL KNIGHT, WHO - THROUGH HIS WRITINGS AND PERSONAL TUITION - HELPED ME TO APPRECIATE THE NATURAL WORLD AND TAUGHT ME THAT BEING AN OBSERVANT "NATURE DETECTIVE" COULD ASSIST IN CLINICAL DIAGNOSIS AND WAS THE FOUNDATION OF FORENSIC INVESTIGATION. Acknowledgements: John Bonner and [...]
Maxwell Knight was the original “M”, a spy-runner who, with the help of young case officers, was responsible for counter-subversion and managed successfully to penetrate the British fascist movement. He was undeniably MI5’s most gifted agent-runner, and his sixth sense for enlisting would-be talented agents lead to him recruiting Joan Miller from within MI5 to [...]
