Monthly Archives: May 2010
DID PHILBY MURDER JOURNALISTS IN SPAIN?
Did Philby murder journalists ? by Jimmy Burns The just published UK paperback edition of my latest book Papa Spy, subtitled A True Story of Love, Wartime Espionage in Madrid, and the Treachery of the Cambridge Spies will I hope provoke a fresh examination of Kim Philby’s alleged involvement in the murder of English and American journalists, ahead of the publication of an authorised and carefully vetted official history of MI6. My unauthorised book exposes for the first time the bitter and protracted personal battle to influence British policy towards …
Volcanic Dust hits PFD
Volcanic Dust hits PFD I breakfasted this morning to learn from today’s Guardian newspaper that Peters, Fraser & Dunlop the agency that represents me as an author is to become part of a new company called The Rights House, owned by the public relations entrepreneur Matthew Freud and a rival agent Michael Foster. It was news to me as I suspect it will have also been to other more illustrious members of the PFD stable, which include Simon Schama , Sir Max Hastings, Chris Patten, Douglas Hurd, and the coalition …
Visca Barca Campeon
Visca Barca Campeon No amount of Cava ejaculating across the Camp Nou last night could hide the fact that after the nail-biting scramble with Sevilla last week, Barca’s encounter with relegation-bound Valladolid was somewhat of an anti-climax. And yet there were touches of brilliance and wonderful goals to remind one of why Barca is the best football team in the world and deserving of the Spanish championship. Messi and Bojan combined beautifully. Toure was a tower of strength, behind and in-front. And Pedro confirmed himself as one of the great …
Farewell Martin Linton
Farewell Martin Linton Mixed feelings run through Battersea Labour Club last night as ousted Labour MP Martin Linton announced that he would not be fighting, as a candidate, another election. As I have noted before , the one-time Guardian journalist Linton while not the most charismatic of individuals has worked hard on local issues since being elected in 1997, and door step canvassing in the last campaign showed him to be more popular than Gordon Brown and his government generally across the party divide. With one of the smallest Labour …
Grudge Champions
Grudge Champions Barring a major reverse Chelsea will this afternoon secure their Premier League Championship while FC Barcelona will once again become Spanish champions next week. Both victories open up the prospect of a deepening rivalry between two clubs whose encounters in the Champions League in recent seasons have been tough and bitter, thus securing the reputation of being one of the must-watch ‘grudge’ matches of the international football calendar. Last night Barca played the kind of beautiful football that has earned it universal respect, even if Sevilla’s two goals …
Yes We Khan
Yes we Khan So Labour lost Battersea. Outgoing Labour MP Martin Linton planned to blame the Liberal Democrats but then thought it better not to. Had more Liberal Democrats cast a tactical ‘progressive vote’, then Labour just might have squeezed in, again. As it turned out the Lib Dem candidate Layla Moran- hugely underperformed in south London despite claims that this candidate had been identified by camp Clegg as one of his rising stars. Linton was magnanimous in defeat, extending a hand of welcome to the Tory Jane Ellison while at …
Tribute to Michael Richey
This Obituary by Jimmy Burns appeared in The Tablet on the 21/1/2010 Mike Richey’s death at the age of 92, three days before Christmas Day ,marks the passing into history of the last of a group of English Catholics who left an enduring mark on the 20th century. On the day of Mike’s birth , his father George , a distinguished British officer who had fought in the Matabele War, the Mashona rebellion and the Boer War, wrote to Mike’s mother Adelaide,from the western front: “We are busy preparing for …
The brave women of Buenos Aires By Jimmy Burns
Published by The Financial Times March 13 2010 In the Plaza de Mayo, Buenos Aires, around the central pyramid that commemorates the overthrow of colonial Spain, a neat circle of painted white bandannas marks the spot where Las Madres de Mayo – some of the bravest women in the world – protested in the last decades of the 20th century against Argentina’s bloody military junta. When I was in the square earlier this year the only protest was, ironically enough, that of a makeshift camping site set up by Malvinas, or …
PARK PEOPLE – Jimmy Burns interviews Jean Barker, Baroness Trumpington
Published in Friends of Battersea Park Review January 2010 Told by a mutual friend to expect “ a very lovely personality”, I approached my first ever interview with Lady Trumpington with a huge sense of anticipation , somewhat overawed with the task of engaging with one of the most formidable personalities living in Battersea. Consider this skeleton CV: One of Lloyd George’s landgirls before serving in naval intelligence at the WW2 codebreaking Bletchley Park, a one-time councillor and Mayor of Cambridge, a minister of state and now , aged 87 …
Secrets of Salamanca By Jimmy Burns
Published by The Financial Times: November 20 2009 Madrid has always exercised a curious hold on me. I blame it on the fact that I was born there, only to be whisked off by my Anglo-Spanish parents to England. I have spent more than a half a century making up for my early displacement from the Spanish capital by returning to it as often as possible. Recently, research for a book about my late father’s espionage activities there in the second world war has given me the perfect excuse to …
