The truth is better than fiction
I strongly suspect that sometime in the near future, probably on a plane to somewhere, I will see the latest Bond incarnation … the names Bond, Blond Bond … & with a sickening envitability, the whole plot will unravel unfold. Explosions, a surfeit of Aston Martins & birds in low cut dresses. All rippingly good fun which will end with the baddie dying imaginatively & the Empire being saved. Huzzzzah!
However a swift shuftie at yesterdays obits reveals the truth about a life in the secret services
Julia Pirie, who has died aged 90, spent two decades as an MI5 agent at the heart of the Communist Party of Great Britain, most of it as personal assistant to the party's general secretary
Julia Pirie? The codename of a sultry beauty with a pistol tucked into her garter - well not exactly
A small, dumpy woman with the appearance of a confirmed and rather matronly spinster, Julia Pirie was the most unlikely of spies. But her unassuming demeanour masked a sharp intellect and the powers of observation essential for the task of a secret agent
But she spent her life jetting between exotic locations. Errrrrr no
Within the Communist Party she was completely trusted, accompanying the general secretary to regular meetings and conferences behind the Iron Curtain. The fact that she usually attempted to avoid these "dreary" visits to the Eastern Bloc only reinforced her cover
Used Q’s latest devices to conduct her survellience ?
Peter Wright, a former senior MI5 officer, revealed in his book Spycatcher that in the late 1950s one of the agent handlers obtained details of the location of the secret membership files from an agent inside the party. The files were stored in the Mayfair flat of a wealthy party member, and the property was put under blanket surveillance. When the owner's wife rang him to say that she was going out for an hour, but would leave the key under the doormat, an MI5 officer swiftly went round to take an impression. Armed with the key, MI5 simply waited until the occupants went away to the Lake District for the weekend, then let themselves in and copied the secret files
& she used the most high tech communications devices to contact MI5 HQ
Julia Pirie would pass over her regular reports and photocopied documents to her MI5 handlers during cricket matches at the Oval cricket ground, a procedure that left her with a lifelong love of the game
It looks like Le Carre & not Fleming, was a little closer to the mark
Comments
I'm not a drinking man, but I'll raise a single malt to Julia. The lady did her duty!
Posted by: Bob in San Diego | October 31, 2008 10:03 AM
Defense of the realm never seemed so unglamerous... Commies! Djeez... Pass me the bottle, Bob...
Posted by: Mischa, taking one for the team in the Netherlands. | October 31, 2008 12:08 PM
Poor thing, having to spend so long with that lot. I hope she is well remembered in the halls of MI5. I don't hold with that "nasty smelling peat stuff" myself, so I'll salute the Lady with a dram of fine aged Bourbon this evening.
Larry in Rochester
Posted by: Larry Anderson | October 31, 2008 1:54 PM
Definitely worth a commemorative snort or two...
Here's to Julia!
Posted by: Kim du Toit | October 31, 2008 5:04 PM