The Old Un's Notes

❋ A new exhibition of declassified documents is full of espionage thrills. MI5: Official Secrets is at the National Archives in Kew from 5th April to 28th September. Exhibits include an unseen snap of wicked old Anthony Blunt, as well as the manually typed transcripts of interrogations of him and Kim Philby. The ordinariness is gripping. An agent's 1963 transcript of meeting Philby (codename Peach), to hand over a confession, adds, 'We arranged that we would go to the Gents together.' Then there's German spy Karl Muller, who in 1915 infiltrated Britain posing as a Russian. Foolishly, Muller used the schoolboy trick of lemon-juice secret ink to transmit military intel. The Old Un can confirm that heating reveals the lemon-juice script, as carbon from the acetic acid oxidises. The postal…

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The Oldie (Digital) - 1 Issue, April 2025

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