The Guy Liddell Diaries, Volume I: 1939-1942: MI5's Director of Counter-Espionage in World War II Paperback – 21 Sept. 2009

Exellent Book, and promtly delivered. very satisfied

I finished reading this book, after a somewhat prolonged effort (which is not to suggest that it was boring, but rather detailed), a few minutes ago here in the wee hours of Saturday night/Sunday morning from my corner of the globe. It is a compilation of a private diary that Guy Liddell kept during the Second World War, detailing on an almost daily basis via dictation to his secretary, his work in the counter-espionage realm.This book is the first volume of a 2 volume set, and covers the period from August 28th, 1939 (when it was clear that war with Germany was probably days away) to September 30th, 1942. For any reader who is a devotee of espionage/espionage history, he/she will be enthralled with reflections and observations about ongoing espionage activities in Britain, Europe, North America, Latin America and the Caribbean, and in places as far afield as Lourenço Marques (Portuguese East Africa) and the Far East. But for the general or casual reader of history, there are titillating details of Liddell's relations with Anthony Blunt (later outed as a Soviet spy by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher) and J.Edgar Hoover, whom Liddell met during the course of a trip he made to North America in June 1942.One observation that Liddell made in a diary entry of September 28th, 1942 I found especially striking is the following: "Ivan Maisky [then Soviet ambassador to Britain] is still propaganding here about a Second Front. There is a certain irony in the present situation. Russia with the utmost cynicism signed the Russo-German pact and thereby precipitated a world war, doubtless on the assumption that the British Empire and Germany would fight themselves to a standstill when Russia would come down like a vulture and pick up the pieces. It is now Russia and Germany that are fighting themselves into a state of exhaustion while we are to a certain degree enjoying a welcome respite. This situation must be a source of considerable irritation to old Joe [Stalin], although in advocating a Second Front he fails to recognize that we are already fighting a war in the Middle East, in the Atlantic and by aerial bombardment of Germany, not to speak of supplying war materials to Russia and other theastres of war."On the whole, I liked this book a lot. But I will take a pause before reading Volume 2.

We owe a vote of thanks to Sir Stephen LANDER, the former Director-General of the Security Service (MI5), in whose office safe the original LIDDLE diaries lay, gathering dust.He recognised their significance and arranged for their release into the public domain. Though MI5's redactions were of a quirky and inconsistent fashion.Liddle recorded not only the great issues of World War II as seen from the eyes of a man privy to the most secret of state secrets, but the social context of events, too. He did this with knowing and an acerbic wit.The editor - military historian Nigel WEST - has applied his unique and encyclopaedic knowledge of the world of espionage in a sympathetic and helpful fashion. He has 'filled in the gaps' for the reader by reinstating most of the details redacted by MI5's 'weeders'. National security is not threatened by this - but the reader will be grateful!The diaries make fascinating reading with revelations and illuminating observations on virtually every page.West acknowledged the contribution of Thomas CHEPLICK, his researcher, who spent weeks in the National Archives transcribing the diaries. This reader adds his grateful thanks too.

The wartime diaries of Guy Liddell represent an invaluable primary source for any scholar investigating the history of British Intelligence during the Second World War. Liddell, who directed Counter-Espionage for MI5, scrupulously jotted down multifarious details of on-going cases, including the continual roundups of Nazi spies and the running of the Double-Cross agents, whose controlled deception of the enemy helped Britain win the war.Although Liddell's observations in the first volume usually stick to the intelligence business at hand, every once and a while, he briefly depicts daily life in the early days of the war. For instance, on October 15, 1939, he writes of a hysterical woman living somewhere on the east coast of England, who penned a letter complaining about the great number of "dangerous" kites being flown by children. On May 19, 1940, he relates an amusing anecdote (that illustrates the differences of language on either side of the Atlantic) about how the Americans, who had ordered "cots" from Harrods, were surprised when, instead of camp-beds for the army, they received crib-beds for infants. On September 24, 1940, Liddell gives us a glimpse of London of the Blitz, writing that as he was leaving the Reform Club, where he had been dining with Anthony Blunt and Guy Burgess, the Luftwaffe dropped incendiary bombs on nearby Pall Mall. Occasionally, a limerick or poem will creep into the diary, but most of the pages are devoted strictly to the serious business of defeating the enemy.My only reservations about the book concern Nigel West's editing, which has been done with an extremely light touch. Even though he presents a roster of personalities at the beginning of the book, Mr. West is less than informative about the hundreds of personages who appear in Liddell's diaries. BISCUIT, for instance, is identified as the cryptonym for Sam McCarthy, who is then cross-referenced only as BISCUIT (One has to consult another source to discover that Mr. Biscuit was a "reformed crook, drug smuggler, and con man" [Haufler, "The Spies Who Never Were," Penguin, 2006] 30). More and thorough annotations would make the book accessible not only to scholars but also to the interested reader. I also found Mr. West's omission of Kim Philby from the roster of personalities puzzling, since Liddell mentions him in several entries of the diary and even consults him on one occasion. Both Anthony Blunt and Guy Burgess (who, like Philby, were later revealed to be unrepentant Soviet agents) are included, being identified as--respectively--"MI5 officer and Guy Liddell's personal assistant" and "Broadcasting expert employed by SIS." One hopes that the omission was accidental and that Mr. West, as an historian, has not voted Philby a damnation of memory. Since Philby was head of counter-espionage in Section V of SIS at the time, he deserves as much recognition as do Blunt and Burgess. One cannot change history by omitting the facts.

A TRUE VISIONARY OF WWI AND WW II

I finished reading this book, after a somewhat prolonged effort (which is not to suggest that it was boring, but rather detailed), a few minutes ago here in the wee hours of Saturday night/Sunday morning from my corner of the globe. It is a compilation of a private diary that Guy Liddell kept during the Second World War, detailing on an almost daily basis via dictation to his secretary, his work in the counter-espionage realm.This book is the first volume of a 2 volume set, and covers the period from August 28th, 1939 (when it was clear that war with Germany was probably days away) to September 30th, 1942. For any reader who is a devotee of espionage/espionage history, he/she will be enthralled with reflections and observations about ongoing espionage activities in Britain, Europe, North America, Latin America and the Caribbean, and in places as far afield as Lourenço Marques (Portuguese East Africa) and the Far East. But for the general or casual reader of history, there are titillating details of Liddell's relations with Anthony Blunt (later outed as a Soviet spy by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher) and J.Edgar Hoover, whom Liddell met during the course of a trip he made to North America in June 1942.One observation that Liddell made in a diary entry of September 28th, 1942 I found especially striking is the following: "Ivan Maisky [then Soviet ambassador to Britain] is still propaganding here about a Second Front. There is a certain irony in the present situation. Russia with the utmost cynicism signed the Russo-German pact and thereby precipitated a world war, doubtless on the assumption that the British Empire and Germany would fight themselves to a standstill when Russia would come down like a vulture and pick up the pieces. It is now Russia and Germany that are fighting themselves into a state of exhaustion while we are to a certain degree enjoying a welcome respite. This situation must be a source of considerable irritation to old Joe [Stalin], although in advocating a Second Front he fails to recognize that we are already fighting a war in the Middle East, in the Atlantic and by aerial bombardment of Germany, not to speak of supplying war materials to Russia and other theastres of war."On the whole, I liked this book a lot. But I will take a pause before reading Volume 2.

A must for historians

Very interesting and a real view into the early security service daily goings on. Full of English wit and skullduggery.