William Collins
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This eBook first published in Great Britain by William Collins in 2018
Copyright © 2018 Richard Davenport-Hines
Cover design by Kate Gaughran
Cover images © Tallandier/bridgemanimages.com; © Keystone/Getty Images; © Lytton Strachey/Frances Partridge/Getty Images; © Keystone/Getty Images (photographs); Shutterstock.com (background texture & flag)
Richard Davenport-Hines asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
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Source ISBN: 9780007516674
Ebook Edition © January 2018 ISBN: 9780007516681
Version: 2019-01-07
With love for † Rory Benet Allan
With gratitude to the Warden and Fellows of All Souls
The lie is a European power.
FERDINAND LASSALLE
Great is the power of steady misrepresentation.
CHARLES DARWIN
No great spy has been a short-term man.
SIR JOHN MASTERMAN
Men are classed less by achievement than by failure to achieve the impossible.
SIR ROBERT VANSITTART
Men go in herds: but every woman counts.
BLANCHE WARRE-CORNISH
Contents
Author’s Note
Glossary
Illustration Credits
PART ONE: Rules of the Game
Chapter 1: The Moscow Apparatus
Soviet espionage in foreign missions
The political culture of everlasting distrust
Chapter 2: The Intelligence Division
Chapter 3: The Whitehall Frame of Mind
Office cultures and manly trust
Chapter 4: The Vigilance Detectives
The uprising of the Metropolitan Police
Norman Ewer of the Daily Herald
The Zinoviev letter and the ARCOS raid
MI5 investigates the Ewer–Hayes network
Chapter 5: The Cipher Spies