Cole, D. J. Geoffrey Prime: The Imperfect Spy. London: Robert Hale, 1998.1. Geoffrey Prime
2. Profumo Case
3. Third Wartime Spy at GCHQ
4. Vassall
5. X Group (GRU)
Cole, D. J. Geoffrey Prime: The Imperfect Spy. London: Robert Hale, 1998.
Northcott, I&NS 14.1, notes that Cole is the Detective Chief Superintendent who led the inquiry into Prime's activities. Consequently, the author's book "contains much useful information and many unique insights from his interviews with Prime." In addition, Cole "writes with an easy-flowing, almost conversational, and highly readable style." Nevertheless, this is a personal memoir "not a scholarly work," and does not have the trappings of the latter.
Economist. Editors. "The Treason of Geoffrey Prime." 13
Nov. 1992, 63- 64.
Prime,
Rhona. Time of Trial. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1984. [Chambers]
The author is Geoffrey Prime's wife.
Smith, Michael. "NATO Blinded by UK Cold War Traitor." Sunday Times (London), 24 May 2009. [http://www.timesonline.co.uk]
A new book, The Secret Sentry by Matthew Aid, to be published next week, "reveals that the information handed over" by Geoffrey Prime told the Russians "that Britain and America had cracked high-grade Soviet military codes.... The revelation led to Moscow changing its encryption methods, leaving western intelligence in the dark for almost a decade afterwards."
Denning,
Alfred Thompson [Baron]. The Profumo-Christine Keeler Affair: Lord Denning's Report. New York: Marc, 1962.
This is the official report on the British spy scandal of the early 1960s.
Irving,
Clive, et al. Anatomy of a Scandal: A Study of the Profumo Affair. New York: Mill, 1963. [Wilcox]
Ivanov,
Yevgeny, and Gennady Sokolov. The Naked Spy. London: Blake, 1992.
Kennedy,
Ludovic. The Trial of Stephen Ward. London: Gollancz, 1964. [Chambers]
Knightley,
Phillip, and Caroline Kennedy. An Affair of State: The Profumo Case and the Framing of Stephen Ward. New York: Atheneum, 1987.
Deac, IJI&C 2.1, says that this is "factual and well worth reading, but it is not without flaws." The narrative is "complex and sometimes jumpy," and Knightley "has the disconcerting habit of fitting the material to his theories."
Rice-Davies,
Mandy. Mandy. London: Joseph, 1980.
The author was one of the centerpieces in the Profumo scandal in the United Kingdom in the early 1960s. Not much intelligence here.
Summers,
Anthony, and Stephen Darril. Honey Trap: The Secret Worlds of Stephen Ward. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1987. Honey Trap: The Scandal, Now the Explosive Movie. Philadelphia, PA: Coronet, 1989. [pb]
Smith, Michael. "Enigma of KGB's Third Man at Bletchley Park." Telegraph (London), 26 Jun. 1997. [http://www.telegraph.co.uk]
According to documents uncovered at the Public Record Office, "Bletchley Park ... was infiltrated by a previously unsuspected third agent run by Moscow.... Two KGB agents were previously known to have passed 'Ultra' material, decrypted from the Nazis' Enigma cipher machine, to the Russians.
"John Cairncross [codenamed Carelian], who joined the Government Code and Cipher School ... in 1943[,] is acknowledged to have given the KGB large amounts of the Ultra material. The only other KGB agent known to have passed on information from Bletchley Park was Leo Long [codenamed Elli], who worked in MI14, the intelligence department that covered Germany. But decrypts of communications between Moscow Centre and the Soviet embassy in London ... show that a third agent, codenamed Baron, was passing on Bletchley Park's intercepts to the Russians....
"The identity of the third agent at Bletchley Park remains unknown."
Vassall was a British Admiralty clerk when he was recruited by the Soviets. His espionage activities were discovered in 1962, and he was tried and sentenced to prison. Vassall was released from prison in 1972, and died in London on 18 November 1996. His obituary appears in the New York Times, 6 Dec. 1996, A19 (N).
Vassall,
William John Christopher. Vassall: The Autobiography of a Spy. London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1975.
Rocca and Dziak call this a "frank autobiographic account of a classic KGB homosexual entrapment and recruitment." Constantinides comments that Vassall "reveals little of his espionage work and of what information he passed to his Soviet handlers." Nevertheless, the book "has instructional value on how blackmail operations are run ... for intelligence ends, assuming Vassall's version of how he was recruited is correct."
West,
Rebecca. The Vassall Affair. London: Sunday Telegraph, 1963.
Constantinides says that the author "is incomparable and unsparing in her penetrating observations and comments on Vassall the agent and on the British security system as revealed by this case.... The focus of the work is on the Radcliffe Tribunal and an evaluation of its findings on responsibility on the British side rather than details of the Vassall operation itself."
West, Nigel [Rupert Allason]. "'Venona': The British Dimension." Intelligence
and National Security 17, no. 1 (Spring 2002): 117-134.
According to West, the Venona texts allow the identification of GRU X Group operatives "Intelligensia" and "Nobility" as J.B.S. Haldane and Ivor Montagu, respectively. There are lots of other codenames still to be revealed.
Return to UK Spy Cases Table of
Contents