- Mass Market Paperback: 10 pages
- Publisher: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group; Reprint edition (1 Jan 1988)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0440201322
- ISBN-13: 978-0440201328
- Product Dimensions: 17 x 10.7 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 187,811 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Synopsis
The former assistant director of MI5 offers an account of British Intelligence, including his work on the Ring of Five and exposing Soviet espionage and the conspiracy to oust Harold Wilson from the office of Prime Minister in the 1970s.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Details of Cold-War Tradecraft Revealed!,
By
This review is from: Spycatcher (Mass Market Paperback)
This is one of those books that I came to late in the game, but after perusing the first page of "Spycatcher", I couldn't put it down for three days! One of the reasons that I resisted reading it was that various espionage writers have criticized the book for its inaccuracies (So he got the date of Philby's interrogation wrong!). I am actually glad that I read the thesaurus of other espionage books including "The Second Oldest Profession," "The Crown Jewels," "My Silent War," "The Philby Files," "Anthony Blunt," (etc.) first, because by the time I read "Spycatcher," I was thoroughly familiar with the multifarious cast of characters. However, as much as I have enjoyed other espionage books, "Spycatcher" surpasses them in one respect: it gives details of tradecraft--now certainly outdated, but nevertheless fascinating--that are impossible in an account of Philby or Blunt who, by necessity, had to remain silent about the fine particulars of their work in intelligence--whether Soviet or British (In "Crown Jewels," Mr. West gives us a glimpse at such details, which the opening of the KGB archives has made accessible.).
Peter Wright lets the reader peek over his shoulder as he installs--what were at that time--sophisticated bugs behind convincing false doors at midnight. He also gives the reader a good chuckle when such operations go disastrously awry and floors collapse or cables are cut, and the work has to begin all over again. The author writes a wry account of brazen Russian agents importuning numerous passers-by in various London parks in an effort to "turn" them into Soviet assets, until the police, at Wright's instigation, out-brazen the agents by threatening to arrest them for harassment of British subjects. He also informs us of MI5's system of Watchers, who were posted all over London and its environs, whose chief duty was to tail diplomats and cypher clerks from the Soviet embassy (A memorable moment occurs when 105 Russians are declared PNG and expelled from Britain in 1971--an event I recall seeing on television.). The author's anecdote of Klop Ustinov (actor Peter's father), who had served British Intelligence so faithfully and effectively (at great peril) throughout World War II, and who was living in penury without a pension, is particularly poignant, probably to highlight Wright's own predicament in the pension department at the end of his career (Desmond Bristow of SIS relates a similar story of official cheese-paring in "A Game of Moles."). The thrust of "Spycatcher" is to build a case against Roger Hollis, the former Director General of MI5, who was at the helm when so many of Wright's operations went wrong. Whether Hollis was a Soviet agent or not (Bristow, who believed that the British intelligence agencies were riddled with Soviet penetration agents, echoes Wright's suspicions in "A Game of Moles."), Peter Wright builds an intriguing circumstantial case against him, noting that the leaks to the Russians and the ruined operations stopped after Hollis had retired. As far as Wright was concerned, the case against Hollis was not proven but the suspicion remained. It was to haunt him the rest of his life.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Well-written and entertaining,
By
This review is from: Spycatcher (Mass Market Paperback)
I found the book quite interesting and entertaining to read. Although at times I was struggling to keep up with all the names of people and organizations.
I have no idea whether everything in the book is true but assuming most of it is quite close to reality the book gives a good insight into what MI5 was like 40 years ago.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Catcher in the Spy.,
By
This review is from: Spycatcher (Mass Market Paperback)
Was this the least read best-seller after the Holy Bible? loads of people got it in the 80's just because Thatcher (see SpyThatcher) banned it. After reading Wrights story, you can see why. It wasn't really to protect any secrets, just to save the face of the British secret service; which from this description has been in the most compromised position imaginable, since the 1930's. Were the Soviets running it afterall?
Wrights story is never-the-less fascinating, at least to begin with. What developed after the second world war in the secret service was nothing really new. Apparently it was poised to defeat Stalins Russia. It turns out that Commies were alkready well inside the service, and that direction continued in open and undisclosed ways (Best known in Blunt and Philby, all detailed where). this book is written from the inside, and Wright tries to exhonerate himself from the terrible smears that such communist infiltration leaves. he charts his own early successes in radio spying technology in the 50's, then gets bogged down in less interesting code breaking systems that were leaked (possibly on purpose!) to the British in the 60's. It sounded like boring work, all that maths, but in the spy business they were over the moon about it. the only other triumph was the conplete success against the UK communist Party. And just look at where they are now. I personally thoink their demise was due to conversions within the party away from communist atheism rather than the expensive MI5 work against them. MI6 come off as a bunch of clowns in this account, although the hints that the General Secretary of MI5(Hollis) was also working for the Soviets from beginning to end also destroys the reputation of MI5. the account of Hollis's "interrogation" (all very polite and British) asking him as he sits in the comfy chair to confess, sounds inspired by Monty Python. So maybe the British Secret Service was a Flying Circus, and clearly nothing more than a game to those inside, playing competitively against both the Soviets and J.Edgar Hoovers FBI. God knows what the truth is.
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