GENTLEMAN SPY
In a time of poisonings and digital election tampering, it’s tempting to wax nostalgic for a time when a spy like Donald Maclean could escape detection because he was ‘one of us.’
Roland Philipps is the author of A Spy Named Orphan: The Enigma of Donald Maclean. He is the grandson of Roger Makins, the last man from the Foreign Office to see Donald Maclean before his escape to the Soviet Union. He was publishing director of Hodder & Stoughton and Macmillan, London, and managing director of John Murray Publishers. He lives in London.
In a time of poisonings and digital election tampering, it’s tempting to wax nostalgic for a time when a spy like Donald Maclean could escape detection because he was ‘one of us.’