Book 7 - Ben McIntyre "A Spy Among Friends"

Ben McIntyre "A Spy Among Friends" (Bloomsbury)





Philby is probably one of the best known and notorious spies in history. For decade he kept his ideological master in Moscow fed with top secret intelligence, from his reporting in the Spanish Civil war and form the moment that he gained access to the most exclusive club in England, MI6.

Philby was a charmer. He made friends easily, was well connected and had what seemed to be almost limitless confidence. His entry into MI6 was effortless, the vetting process comprising of the deputy head of MI6 saying that he knew his people. And he was in.

Philby and Nick Elliot, another rising star in the service, became close friends. They worked well together and spent long evenings in gentlemen's club strengthening their relationship. Philpy also formed a friendship with Angleton, who was to become chief of counter intelligent of the CIA. They shared every secret because of that trust. And Philby told Moscow everything. He was posted to Washington after the war and cultivated the people of the American network there. But things were starting to move against him. He was one of a number of spies who had been requited in Cambridge in the 1930's and after some defections the net was closing in on Maclean. Philby tipped him off that they were after him, and he defected with Burgess over a weekend as the MI5 watchers didn't work at weekends!

The Americans were also starting to have their doubts about him after a series of Albanian operations were rounded up almost immediately. He returned to London with question marks over his loyalty, but with his charm on full managed to deflect suspicion following interrogation. He was accused in Parliament, and did a famous press conference, still used today for MI6 training purposes, where almost everything he said was a lie.

He was asked to leave the service and ended up doing some little bits of journalism, but he was running out of cash. The Russians stepped into help, but in the background Nick Elliot was looking to return him to the service. And after short period he managed it. Philby would be based in Beruit, supposedly working for the Observer but finding intelligence for MI6 and of course the Soviets. But the net was closing in once again and this time the evidence was damming. In 1963 Elliot confronts him in an apartment in Beruit and extracts a form of confession from Philby, but no apology. Short after this meeting he defects to Moscow.

Macintyre has concentrated on the personal side in this book. He writes in detail about the way that Philby was able to move with in the intelligence services, cultivating friendships in MI6 & MI5 and in the CIA too. He describes how the American started to have their suspicions and were more shocked by the UK response that he could never do that as he was a member of the establishment. It was quite scary that when MI5 were investigating him that MI6 closed ranks to protect a colleague.

A very well written book about the most treacherous spy in history.

Book 8 - H. C. Robbins Landon "1791: Mozart's Last Year"

H. C. Robbins Landon "1791: Mozart's Last Year" (Flamingo)




The author is passionately devoted to Mozart and no detail is too small as he examines Mozart's health, finances, movements, relationships in 1791. Some of the details were too small for me, but I enjoyed the author's devotion to Mozart and to Constanze.

This was the year in which Mozart wrote The Magic Flute, La Clemenza di Tito, and the Clarinet Concerto, as well as most of the Requiem; it was also a year of mounting disappointment in his career as part of the Viennese musical establishment, and a year of growing debt.

At one point he reports that Beethoven refused to play before a certain lady because he thought she had been Mozart's mistress. Landon says: "(what a prude Beethoven was!)." One of the appendices is an article entitled "An Illustrated Student of Mozart's Apartment and Wardrobe," with photographs of typical clothing and furniture as well as floor plans of the Mozarts' apartment in Vienna.

Recommended if you want to time-travel to the late 18th Century in the company of Mozart.