Historical Dictionary of British Spy Fiction

Historical Dictionary of British Spy Fiction

Author: Alan Burton

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2016-04-04

Total Pages: 534

ISBN-13: 1442255870

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The Historical Dictionary of British Spy Fiction is a detailed overview of the rich history and achievements of the British espionage story in literature, cinema and television. It provides detailed yet accessible information on numerous individual authors, novels, films, filmmakers, television dramas and significant themes within the broader field of the British spy story. It contains a wealth of facts, insights and perspectives, and represents the best single source for the study and appreciation of British spy fiction. British spy fiction is widely regarded as the most significant and accomplished in the world and this book is the first attempt to bring together an informed survey of the achievements in the British spy story in literature, cinema and television. The Historical Dictionary of British Spy Fiction contains a chronology, an introduction, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 200 cross-referenced entries on individual authors, stories, films, filmmakers, television shows and the various sub-genres of the British spy story. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about British spy fiction.


A Political Family

A Political Family

Author: John Green

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-03-27

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 1315304414

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The Kuczynskis were a German-Jewish family of active anti-fascists who worked assiduously to combat the rise of Nazism before and during the course of the Second World War. This book focuses on the family of Robert and his wife Berta – both born two decades before the end of the nineteenth century – and their six children, five of whom became communists and one who worked as a Soviet agent. The parents, and later their children, rejected and rebelled against their comfortable bourgeois heritage and devoted their lives to the overthrow of privilege and class society. They chose to do this in a Germany that was rapidly moving in the opposite direction. With the rise of German nationalism and then Hitler fascism, the family was confronted with stark choices and, as a result of making these choices, suffered persecution and exile. Revealing how these experiences shaped their outlook and perception of events, this book documents the story of the Kuczynskis for the first time in the English language and is a fascinating biographical portrait of a unique and radical family.


Looking-Glass Wars: Spies on British Screens since 1960

Looking-Glass Wars: Spies on British Screens since 1960

Author: Alan Burton

Publisher: Vernon Press

Published: 2018-01-31

Total Pages: 555

ISBN-13: 1622732901

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Looking-Glass Wars: Spies on British Screens since 1960 is a detailed historical and critical overview of espionage in British film and television in the important period since 1960. From that date, the British spy screen was transformed under the influence of the tremendous success of James Bond in the cinema (the spy thriller), and of the new-style spy writing of John le Carré and Len Deighton (the espionage story). In the 1960s, there developed a popular cycle of spy thrillers in the cinema and on television. The new study looks in detail at the cycle which in previous work has been largely neglected in favour of the James Bond films. The study also brings new attention to espionage on British television and popular secret agent series such as Spy Trap, Quiller and The Sandbaggers. It also gives attention to the more ‘realistic’ representation of spying in the film and television adaptations of le Carré and Deighton, and other dramas with a more serious intent. In addition, there is wholly original attention given to ‘nostalgic’ spy fictions on screen, adaptations of classic stories of espionage which were popular in the late 1970s and through the 1980s, and to ‘historical’ spy fiction, dramas which treated ‘real’ cases of espionage and their characters, most notably the notorious Cambridge Spies. Detailed attention is also given to the ‘secret state’ thriller, a cycle of paranoid screen dramas in the 1980s which portrayed the intelligence services in a conspiratorial light, best understood as a reaction to excessive official secrecy and anxieties about an unregulated security service. The study is brought up-to-date with an examination of screen espionage in Britain since the end of the Cold War. The approach is empirical and historical. The study examines the production and reception, literary and historical contexts of the films and dramas. It is the first detailed overview of the British spy screen in its crucial period since the 1960s and provides fresh attention to spy films, series and serials never previously considered.


Terrorist Informers in Northern Ireland

Terrorist Informers in Northern Ireland

Author: Samantha Newbery

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2024-10-21

Total Pages: 328

ISBN-13: 0192885847

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By using informers to provide intelligence on terrorism, the security and intelligence agencies who handle them gain knowledge of their offences. Charges may then be brought against them, provided evidence supports this course of action. But if imprisoned, an informer no longer has access to the time-sensitive, potentially life-saving intelligence they once had. There is therefore a tension between continuing to use an informer to provide intelligence on terrorism and upholding the law. This tension is at the heart of this book. Terrorist Informers in Northern Ireland analyses prominent terrorist informers such as Agent Stakeknife, and lesser-known examples, who collectively were active throughout Northern Ireland from the 1970s to the present. It looks at both those involved with republican groups and with loyalist groups, and also those working for the police, the armed forces, and MI5. Valuable pieces of the puzzle are unearthed in sources such as court judgments, official reports, and in interviews conducted by the author. The book also analyses the way successive governments, the police, the armed forces, and MI5 have addressed the regulation of terrorist informers' involvement in criminality, as well as allegations of 'collusion' between informers on one hand and the security and intelligence agencies on the other. Accordingly, the book also assesses the varied retrospective investigations into the use of terrorist informers, and therefore the competing needs for secrecy and transparency. As Samantha Newbery's research here shows, although there is a tension between intelligence and the law, this can be successfully navigated.


John le Carré and the Cold War

John le Carré and the Cold War

Author: Toby Manning

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2018-01-25

Total Pages: 258

ISBN-13: 1350036404

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John le Carré and the Cold War explores the historical contexts and political implications of le Carré's major Cold-War novels. The first in-depth study of le Carré this century, this book analyses his work in light of key topics in 20th-century history, including containment of Communism, decolonization, the Berlin Wall, the Cuban missile crisis, the Cambridge spy-ring, the Vietnam War, the 70s oil crisis and Thatcherism. Examining The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1963), Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1974), Smiley's People (1979) and other novels, this book offers an illuminating picture of Cold-War Britain, while situating le Carré's work alongside that of George Orwell, Graham Greene and Ian Fleming. Providing a valuable contribution to contemporary understandings of both British spy fiction and post-war fiction, Toby Manning challenges the critical consensus to reveal a considerably less radical writer than is conventionally presented.


The Counterintelligence Chronology

The Counterintelligence Chronology

Author: Edward Mickolus

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2015-09-15

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 147662240X

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Spying in the United States began during the Revolutionary War, with George Washington as the first director of American intelligence and Benedict Arnold as the first turncoat. The history of American espionage is full of intrigue, failures and triumphs--and motives honorable and corrupt. Several notorious spies became household names--Aldrich Ames, Robert Hanssen, the Walkers, the Rosenbergs--and were the subjects of major motion pictures and television series. Many others have received less attention. This book summarizes hundreds of cases of espionage for and against U.S. interests and offers suggestions for further reading. Milestones in the history of American counterintelligence are noted. Charts describe the motivations of traitors, American targets of foreign intelligence services and American traitors and their foreign handlers. A former member of the U.S. intelligence community, the author discusses trends in intelligence gathering and what the future may hold. An annotated bibliography is provided, written by Hayden Peake, curator of the Historical Intelligence Collection of the Central Intelligence Agency.


Weird Scenes Inside The Canyon

Weird Scenes Inside The Canyon

Author: David McGowan

Publisher: SCB Distributors

Published: 2014-03-19

Total Pages: 310

ISBN-13: 1909394130

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The very strange but nevertheless true story of the dark underbelly of a 1960s hippie utopia. Laurel Canyon in the 1960s and early 1970s was a magical place where a dizzying array of musical artists congregated to create much of the music that provided the soundtrack to those turbulent times. Members of bands like the Byrds, the Doors, Buffalo Springfield, the Monkees, the Beach Boys, the Turtles, the Eagles, the Flying Burrito Brothers, Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, Steppenwolf, CSN, Three Dog Night and Love, along with such singer/songwriters as Joni Mitchell, Judy Collins, James Taylor and Carole King, lived together and jammed together in the bucolic community nestled in the Hollywood Hills. But there was a dark side to that scene as well. Many didn’t make it out alive, and many of those deaths remain shrouded in mystery to this day. Far more integrated into the scene than most would like to admit was a guy by the name of Charles Manson, along with his murderous entourage. Also floating about the periphery were various political operatives, up-and-coming politicians and intelligence personnel – the same sort of people who gave birth to many of the rock stars populating the canyon. And all the canyon’s colorful characters – rock stars, hippies, murderers and politicos – happily coexisted alongside a covert military installation.