The Frightened Face of Nature (FFON)
Inspired by Maxwell Knight: MI5’s greatest spymaster ('M') & the original 'Nature Detective'
There are a few subjects best left off the table at dinner parties - Brexit is one, Climate Change is another. Both have the propensity to split the room equally and leave guests reaching for the after dinner mints before the main course is out of the oven. But are things about to change when … Continue reading Is the climate finally right for a change?
Thanks, Cage & Aviary Birds for the article "The Mysterious Mr Knight: spymaster to be celebrated" in this week's publication. Registration for the Maxwell Knight Symposium is via The British Herpetological Society website Organised by the British Herpetological Society (BHS), with support from the British Chelonia Group (BCG), the Amateur Entomologists Society (AES), the Institute … Continue reading “The mysterious Mr Knight: spymaster to be celebrated.” – Cage & Aviary Birds magazine July 18.
Latest news 28/6/2018: Birkbeck College ("School of Arts' annex") is now confirmed as the venue for the Maxwell Knight Symposium. Further details about the Maxwell Knight Symposium can be found here. John and Margaret Cooper.
In this heartfelt chapter of The Frightened Face of Nature, Maxwell Knight drops his guard and invites the reader to consider the unthinkable - "the virtual disappearance of nature". "Does such a question as that heading this chapter stem from the neurotic imaginings of a fanatic," he asks, "or is it one that can reasonably be … Continue reading Chapter IV – goodbye to wildlife?
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 … Continue reading Maxwell Knight – the spy-runner who loved nature
Knight the pioneer: How did 'bird gardening' become established in British life? Simon King reveals its origins in the ideas and writing of the famous WW2 spy catcher - none other than Maxwell Knight. The practice of putting out food for birds in gardens is more popular now than ever before, with more than half … Continue reading BIRD GARDENING – HOW DID IT START?
Simon King and Margaret Cooper reveal its origins in the ideas and writing of the famous WW2 spy catcher – none other than Maxwell Knight. Available in this week's Cage & Aviary Birds Magazine
During the 1960s Maxwell Knight - the real-life "M" - was working on a manuscript entitled The Frightened Face of Nature, snatching brief moments to record his thoughts on how man had treated nature so unfairly for the first fifty years of the twentieth century. The manuscript documented Knight's greatest fears that, time was running out for nature and that its greatest threat was man's destructive revolution and the reverse of evolution. “By all means let man use his great powers to invent new devices; let him give of his best to see that all shall benefit from his genius in curing, healing, and housing those in want. But do not suggest that this can only be done by destroying what is fine to look at or listen to, whether in the arts or nature. If human brains can find means of defying space, improving means of communication and bouncing pictures off satellites, surely he can also discover ways in which these things can be done without destruction – for destruction first is the cry of mad revolution and is the reverse of evolution.” - Maxwell Knight The manuscript was kept under lock and key and it remained a secret until 2015 when the (hitherto unpublished) manuscript was discovered inside M's personal filing cabinet... Copyright: see acknowledgements
