Monthly Archives: October 2023

Mick Jagger at El Clasico

Posted on October 29, 2023 in the Blog, Football category

Heading towards Barco Latino , a tapas joint permanently anchored along   London’s Temple Pier , for the live broadcast coverage of the FC Barcelona-Real Madrid on Saturday afternoon, I had to navigate my way through a large pro-Palestine and pro-ceasefire demonstration on both sides of the Embankment. An estimated 100,000  spending their weekend passionately taking sides on  an issue of life and death, contrasting with my own indulgent escape into the world of sport, troubled my conscience  and somewhat defused any excitement I felt about the upcoming football match . …

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British intelligence in twilight of Empire

Posted on October 2, 2023 in the Blog, Espionage category

The subject of my new book A Faithful Spy  , the late MI6 and MI5 officer Walter Bell  was  at the heart of the US/UK WW2  and Cold War intel relationship. His hitherto undisclosed   private papers , on which the book draws , also covers his  posting to Kenya 1949-1952 , to Delhi in 1952-57, West Indies in 1958-1960 , Kenya again in 1961-1967 where he was involved  operationally,  as British intelligence monitored soviet influence on anti-colonial leaders and played a crucial role in  the passing of political power while …

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