In the middle of the bookcase behind his desk, above his empty chair, just where Kims head would have rested, a single book looms out, cover first. [1] Philby began his work for the Soviet Union as a spy in 1934. Melinda walked out on her husband, leaving the children with Donald, and moved in with Philby. It had been a long time coming. He was 65. Was he lamentable for still believing that a Communist state could ultimately exist, free from the corruption which plagues all systems, to the benefit of a fair, just society? 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Today, Moscows main strip, Tverskaya Ryad which I remember from childhood holidays as a drab grey stretch clotted with queues of people who looked like they didnt know what they were waiting for (though it was usually oranges or ice cream) is barely recognisable: a knot of designer stores and mobile-phone shops, interspersed with garish billboards hanging between the buildings above the busy main road. Eleanor found Melinda amusing but nervous and highly strung and yearning for the luxuries of Western capitalism. Edith and Kim by Charlotte Philby is published by HarperCollins (14.99). But as the months turned into years and no word came from him, she sank into depression at the realisation that she was now bringing up their children alone. She liked it that he was a man with strong beliefs, and agreed to stand by him. By the time she left Russia, Maclean was in his final decline, in and out of hospital with cancer from his lifetime of smoking. Whatever you believe, Kim felt history would prove him right: Ill be remembered as a good man, he told my mum just two years before his death, Discussing the reasons for this in the introduction to Boroviks book, The Philby Files, the journalist and biographer Phillip Knightley who interviewed my grandfather at length during his final years in Moscow writes: Could the British intelligence service really be run by such fools that no one had noticed that precious information was leaking to Moscow? It was a mystery. Maclean was unsure how to act, feeling a mixture of guilt and love, not knowing where he stood with the children he had abandoned and not been able to contact. She sensed that the Macleans marriage was a difficult one again, with Donald on occasion still getting hopelessly drunk. Recently I found a paparazzo shot of my dad with a suitcase getting into a car and me, aged five, looking into the camera, and I had this moment of recognition. They gave a lot of parties. As previously noted, this has been taken as a sign along with his heavy drinking that in the end, Kim was left a broken man, disillusioned and dejected, having arrived in Moscow expecting to be given important assignments and a high-ranking role in the KGB, only to be left with very little to do, and plied with booze to keep him compliant. Macleans study resembled that of a Cambridge professor, with copies of Trollope, biographies of Gladstone and airmail editions of The Times. Death. Image: Barney Beech, Kim's graveside, at Kuntsovo Cemetry. Her fourth novel, Edith and Kim, tells the linked stories of her grandfather and Edith Tudor-Hart, a Jewish photojournalist born in Vienna, who studied at the Bauhaus, married an Englishman, worked as a Soviet agent in London and introduced Kim to his Russian handler. I remember Kims words: I have followed exactly the same line the whole of my adult life. The pair returned to England in May and, by this point already an appointed Soviet agent, Kim found work as a foreign correspondent. The next day she notified the British Consul in Geneva. Kim Philby, byname of Harold Adrian Russell Philby, (born January 1, 1912, Ambala, Indiadied May 11, 1988, Moscow, Russia, U.S.S.R.), British intelligence officer until 1951 and the most successful Soviet double agent of the Cold War period. Was that a selfish decision? Banner-waving XR zealots let off smoke flares, pour black paint outside Home Office British tennis fans are kicked out for chanting 'You're just a s*** Andy Murray' during Cameron Norrie's Farmer, 71, who appeared on BBC documentary This Farming Life is killed by one of his own cows. In fact, he had arrived in Moscow days earlier, and can be seen on film standing just back from his fathers coffin. Cambridge-educated Nicholas Elliott and Kim Philby became close friends in 1940, when they were both working in separate departments of the British Intelligence . How much more so when its your own family?My relationship to my grandfather is complex and constantly evolving. But, after a silence of nearly five years, here was the first actual sighting and confirmation that the runaways were alive. Fergus announced to some children with whom he was playing that My Daddy wants to stop all wars. But in Russia he is still admired as a hero. They're at it again! Primary Sources. She put the two boys into the International School in Geneva and finally explained to them what had happened to their father, reporting to her sister that their worst fear seems to be that I might vanish too. When I happened upon the story of Edith Tudor-Hart, I knew that she was the person I had to write about. To order A Spy Among Friends or Kim Philby, each at 14.99 with free UK p&p, call Guardian book service on 0330 333 6846 or go to guardianbookshop.co.uk. Online calculator reveals how inflation-busting 14.4% hike will Do not sell or share my personal information. children: Dudley Thomas Philby, Harry George Philby, John David Philby, Josephine F. Philby, Josephine Philby, Miranda Philby, Tommy Philby Born Country: India Spies British Men Died on: May 11, 1988 place of death: Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union Cause of Death: Heart Failure More Facts Recommended Lists: British Celebrities Russian Celebrities Why British spy Donald Maclean's wife dumped him and their three children for fellow traitor Kim Philby The Maclean's marriage was stormy, with rows, infidelity and bad bahaviour Friends. ", Pukhova, now 78, said she was irritated by stories about Philby's drink problem, but admitted he wasn't always able to stick to his two-glass rule. And all along he was handing information straight back into the hands of the Russians. He became more optimistic once the family was deemed fully rehabilitated and they moved to Moscow in 1955. that Philby, with his Communist views in Vienna and his Austrian Communist wife, had been recruited for SIS and had sailed through its vetting procedures?. 1941Transferred to SIS Iberian sub-section. Aileen died in 1957, when Tommy was just 11 years old; his contact with his father was cut off as soon as the double spy defected to the USSR in January 1963. 21 offers from $10.67. Perhaps he hadnt always been right. Delivery charges may apply, Kim Philby: I got away with treachery because I was upper class, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, Charlotte Philby: We visited Kim in Moscow, Charlotte Philby at her home in Bristol: Im trying to reconnect with what made me fall in love with books and the process of writing., harlotte Philby, 39, is a former investigative reporter and the author of three critically acclaimed spy novels. Two years later, a Sunday Times correspondent was in Moscow and about to pack his bags after an unsuccessful attempt to interview the Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev, when, out of the blue, he was invited to a room in his hotel. For one thing, like all the men in the Philby family, he was bloody-minded. Back in England, begins to cover up his past, joining the Anglo-German Fellowship, editing its pro-Hitler magazine. She cashed a substantial cheque, bought her toddler daughter some new clothes and settled an outstanding garage bill. Melinda translated Russian stories into English for the weekly English paper, Moscow News. The view from one of the windows is notably different, too. Charlotte is the granddaughter of Kim Philby, Britain's most famous communist double-agent, the elusive 'third man' in the notorious Cambridge spy ring. In the programme for his play Single Spies, the writer Alan Bennett printed a claim that my dad had turned up late to his own fathers funeral, straight from the airport, and stood swaying behind a gravestone clutching bags of booze. She flew to New York to see her daughter Annie, and it was there that several letters arrived from Philby. A Double Life: The Times & Observers Thriller of the Month. It was a few years after this, in 1933, that Kim went to Vienna. In time, details emerged of their lives after they defected. Kim Philby and Nicholas Elliott. Princess Royal honours Team GB curling stars and Scottish police chief at Palace of Peter Andre launches scathing attack on Prince Harry as he says Duke of Sussex is 'publicly trashing his Take note, Prince Harry! 1955Government white paper on Burgess-Maclean affair. 1951Tips off fellow Cambridge Spy Donald Maclean that a warrant has been issued for his arrest. To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. He did all he could do for a cause he believed in: what was there to regret? I am going to England in July for a Filby reunion at the town Filby. Over the years he did everything that was asked of him: he gave everything he had to the cause, and yet still Moscow was deeply suspicious of a man who has been described as their finest and most loyal servant. For another, hed made his bed. No doubt your grandfather would have disapproved of the sharp contrasts in present-day Russia, he said. When Bennett was pulled up on the matter, he wrote my father a note explaining that he stood by what hed said as the information had come from a reliable source a BBC journalist. Eleanor Kearns was born in Seattle in 1914. Given all that Melinda had gone through, the pity she had had to accept and the dissembling she had had to practise, that first meeting overseen by Soviet officials was a strained affair. So Philby left his wife and children in England in September 1956, arriving in a country for which he had little natural sympathy. Rebuilding it meant forging a unique friendship with the very woman he left her for. Those are the facts but there are plenty of question marks too. As the icy breeze hits our cheeks, he points towards a raised tomb set forward slightly from the rest: Yeltsins mama, he explains. Kim Philby was unmasked as a Soviet double agent in July 1963 when . A few days after her return to Switzerland, she told her mother she had run into an old friend in the local market and hed invited her and the children to stay with him for the weekend in his villa at the other end of Lake Geneva. And here he was struck by disappointment, brought to tears. Many of the street names have changed since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Little Donald said perhaps he had gone to India because that would be a good place to hide., Donald Maclean with his wife Melinda Marling and his two sons Ronald and Fergus in the 50s, Wanted pictures are posted at a Berlin checkpoint for Donald Maclean and Guy Burgess, Guy Burgess (pictured) did not cope well to life in the Soviet Union - he got drunk and roamed Kuybyshev looking for action, on one occasion having his teeth knocked out in a brawl. One of the first tasks he was given was to spy on his own father, which he did, without question digging up very little, because, though the Russians failed to believe it, there was nothing to dig up. But no matter; allowing myself plenty of time to get lost, Im soon heading towards the apartment where my grandfather lived out the final 25 years of his life under the watchful eye of Moscow and where his widow Rufa is currently preparing an enormous spread for our afternoon tea. Then, with no more information to be had, the story of the Macleans went dead. The pair got on well in those later years they were very similar in many ways and my father said he never felt any resentment, not even when he unfairly came under fire by virtue of his name. Is it time Harry & Meghan accept Clarkson's apology and move on? But neither was entirely impervious. Fergie is horrified that [Donald] might have done something wrong at the office and the FO will be very angry when he returns. The last time I arrived at this flat, aged six, it was just a few days after Kims death, and my parents and I were met by a sea of swollen eyes. Kim leapt up and shouted, 'Whoever is rude to my wife is rude to me!' The basic facts, after all, are well-documented. H. A. R. (Kim) Philby, the double agent whose betrayal of his country and his social class indelibly marked British politics, has died in Moscow, officials in London said yesterday. It is an old-fashioned home, not like the homes of new Russia, where everything is modern and imported. She cannot imagine what Kim would have made of this new world, where a minority have benefited so enormously while many outside the capital, the vast majority live in abject poverty with little support from the state. Despite the number of times we visited Kim in Moscow, no one in the family was ever allowed to have his address. Slowly but surely, he was turning himself into one of the most cunning and treacherous double agents of all time. There, he volunteered for the refugee committee, fundraising, secretly writing and disseminating propaganda, raising funds and distributing clothes and money to those whod escaped Fascist Germany. On one occasion, when dropping us off at the airport, Kim and my dad were so sloshed they were shoved into a cupboard under the stairs with a bottle of vodka by staff to keep them quiet, while the British ambassador ambled around the main terminal building waiting for the same flight to London. In Philbys own eyes he was working for the shape of things to come from which his country would benefit., Kim went to great efforts upon his return to England to cover the traces of his Communist background joining the Anglo-German fellowship in 1934, and editing its pro-Hitler magazine. Getty Images In the USSR, Philby essentially became an honorary pensioner: he passed on to Soviet intelligence everything he. The only change I can note is a computer on his desk where an old type-writer once stood. 1946Moves to Turkey, working as head of SIS there. My second novel is The Times' Book of the Month for July 2020, Chapman Pincher: The Spy-Catcher of Fleet Street, Edith Tudor-Hart: The grandmother of the Cambridge Spies, John le Carr: The writer who made me want to write, ELLE: An unexpected friendship with the other woman. The first reports that Russia ranks 143rd in a list of the worlds freest economies, just one spot higher than countries with repressed economies like Vietnam, Ecuador, Belarus and Ukraine, while the next tells how oligarch Roman Abramovich, whose wealth is valued at 7 billion, has just snapped up 35 notable artworks to decorate his 560ft private yacht. Perhaps. Theirs had always been a stormy marriage, punctuated by bad behaviour on both sides and terrible rows. children: John David Philby Josephine F. Philby Dudley Thomas Philby Miranda Philby Harry George Philby Birth. Laying flowers at my grandfather's grave. But above all, the problem was that Kims intelligence was too good, and to their detriment intelligence services are geared to believe that the better information is, the more it should be questioned. 1937Joins The Times as foreign correspondent. because he "didn't want his children, who were used to life of freedom, to suffer life of oppression". I think part of the appeal of writing this book was trying to reconcile the ways in which Ive come to understand him: as a grandfather; a father; a friend; a traitor; an idealist. When they had not returned on the Sunday night, her mother was frantic. As for Melinda the central figure in the circle of loyalty and secrecy, desertion and reconciliation, love and solitariness that was the human drama of Donald Macleans life she lived well into her 90s before dying in New York in 2010, silent to the end about her years with one of Britains most infamous traitors. Here, surrounded by an extensive library, he would sit for hours. On their first night in Moscow, an elated Burgess and Maclean had dined in style on a great hotel balcony on the first floor overlooking the Kremlin and got drunk on vodka. 58. He barely embraced his wife. She has three children and lives in London. 1962George Blake is caught. Two years later he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. To order a copy for 15, visit mailshop.co.uk/ books or call 0844 571 0640. Edith and Kim: The brilliant new historical spy novel based on the true story of the woman behind the Cambridge spies in Cold War espionage. When Melinda and the children joined him, they moved into a small apartment and the children were put into the local Soviet schools. Meets Guy Burgess, Donald Maclean, Anthony Blunt and John Cairncross. Philby still dismissed from Foreign Service for his association with Burgess. A retired CIA agent was once asked what he would say to Kim Philby, an MI5 agent who spied for Joseph Stalin, if he encountered the defector in Moscow. But they were quasi-spy novels so I ended up talking about them in relation to his story anyway. Her fourth novel, Edith and Kim, tells the linked stories of her grandfather and Edith Tudor-Hart, a Jewish photojournalist born in Vienna, who studied at the Bauhaus, married an Englishman,. Kim sacrificed everything he had: he risked his life and the lives of others, he betrayed his colleagues and duped his family and friends (even spying on his own father at one stage, as will be explained shortly) because he genuinely believed from the point when he joined the movement and set his sights against the seemingly irrepressible rise of Fascism that Communism was a cause worth holding dear above all else. Maclean accused Philby of being a double agent working for the British and they stopped speaking. Spy Among Friends : Philby and the Great Betrayal, Paperback by MacIntyre, Ben, ISBN 1408851784, ISBN-13 9781408851784, Brand New, Free shipping in the US<br><br> ", His habit was fuelled by his sorrow over what he saw around him, she added. Did your father, John, talk about his father?We never had a family meeting where he said: Right, Im going to explain to you who your grandfather was. That was not at all the kind of person he was. He would say we and our when speaking of the Soviet Union and defended his adopted countrys brutal crushing of the Hungarian Uprising in 1956 an event that disgusted many Left-wing supporters back in the UK. After reading it briefly, my dad had simply shrugged and tossed the note in the bin. Once hed gone, she rode out the public furore, the door-stepping journalists, the MI5 questioning, the abuse and insinuations, the bullying of her sons at school. The collapse of the Red Banner only change I can note is a computer on his desk where old! 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