MI6Section13

MI6Section13 OP t1_j6hixgm wrote

Reply to How do you live to be 100? Good genes, getting outside and friends. by MI6Section13

Are you interested in Kim Philby and John le Carré’s secrets, Dead Lions, the excellent TV series SAS Rogue Heroes and even Ungentlemanly Warfare in which Henry Cavill is to star? Well, there existed a less renowned but SAS related clique of maverick and patriotic British scoundrels in British Intelligence called Pemberton’s People who worked for Colonel Alan Brooke Pemberton CVO MBE.

During the Malayan Emergency (really a war) British Intelligence and covert units such as the Special Air Service worked closely together under the eagle eyes of Field Marshal Sir Gerald Walter Robert Templer and his ADC Alan Pemberton. In 1952 in Malaya they oversaw the establishment of 22 SAS Regiment. Since then its home has been in Hereford, England. Malaya proved to be an exquisite training ground for all involved in the dark arts of modern warfare.

Even the notorious spy Philby (who was a cousin of Field Marshal Montgomery) tried to get in on the act to support the communist backed insurgents and later some of Pemberton’s People starred in the real Clockwork Orange Plot as to be depicted in Samuel Martin’s The Ghost of Harold Wilson.

If you are interested in all this and more besides do check it out at TheBurlingtonFiles website and see the brief News Article dated 31 October 2022 … Pemberton’s People, Ungentlemanly Officers & Rogue Heroes.

See https://theburlingtonfiles.org/news_2022.10.31.php

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MI6Section13 t1_j1dkpu9 wrote

Reply to comment by No-Strength-6805 in Bookclub Wednesday! by AutoModerator

If you liked those have a look at these! Fiction - Mick Herron - Slow Horses in The Slough House series - an anti-Bond masterpiece laced with sardonic humour Fiction - Len Deighton - Funeral in Berlin - shame they chose The Ipcress File for a remake rather than this Non-fiction - Bill Fairclough - Beyond Enkription in The Burlington Files series - a raw noir sui generis novel Non-fiction - Ben Macintyre - The Spy and The Tr…aitor + A Spy Among Friends - must reads for all espionage cognoscenti

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MI6Section13 t1_iu3y4ca wrote

Reply to comment by CavediverNY in TIL about anti ninja floors in Japan. They were purposefully made to squeak as to alert people of intruders. by tpb01

You can learn a lot more from The Burlington Files than Bond! Ever heard of the Bona-fides Bond? He was a real spy called Bill Fairclough (MI6 codename JJ) aka Edward Burlington and while there aren't any films made about him to date there is one hell of an espionage thriller released so far about his real life exploits.

Beyond Enkription (intentionally misspelt) is a must read for espionage cognoscenti and the first stand-alone spy thriller in The Burlington Files autobiographical series by Bill Fairclough (MI6 codename JJ, aka Edward Burlington). It’s a raw and noir matter of fact pacy novel. Len Deighton and Mick Herron could be forgiven for thinking they co-wrote it. Coincidentally, a few critics have nicknamed its protagonist “a posh Harry Palmer.”

This elusive and enigmatic novel is a true story about a maverick accountant (Edward Burlington in Porter Williams International aka Bill Fairclough in Coopers & Lybrand now PwC in real life). In 1974 in London he began infiltrating organised crime gangs, unwittingly working for MI6. After some frenetic attempts on his life he was relocated to the Caribbean where, “eyes wide open” he was recruited by the CIA and headed for shark infested waters off Haiti.

If you’re an espionage cognoscente you’ll love this monumental book. In real life Bill was recruited by MI6's unorthodox Colonel Alan Brooke Pemberton CVO MBE and thereafter they worked together on and off into the 1990s. Pemberton’s People included Roy Astley Richards (Winston Churchill’s bodyguard), one eccentric British Brigadier (Peter 'Scrubber' Stewart-Richardson) who tried to join the Afghan Mujahideen, Peter Goss an SAS Colonel and JIC member involved in the Clockwork Orange Plot concerning Prime Minister Harold Wilson and even the infamous rogue Major Freddy Mace, who even highlighted his cat burgling and silent killing skills in his CV.

This epic is so real it made us wonder why bother reading espionage fiction when facts are so much more exhilarating. Atmospherically it's reminiscent of Ted Lewis' Get Carter of Michael Caine fame. If anyone ever makes a film based on Beyond Enkription they'll only have themselves to blame if it doesn't go down in history as a classic thriller … it’s the stuff memorable films are made of.

Whether you’re a le Carré connoisseur, a Deighton disciple, a Fleming fanatic, a Herron hireling or a Macintyre marauder, odds on once you are immersed in it you’ll read this titanic production twice. For more detailed reviews visit the Reviews page on TheBurlingtonFiles website or see other independent reviews on your local Amazon website and check out Bill Fairclough's background on the web.

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