Spy's guide to surviving London life: UK National Archives

By Dominic Casciani
BBC News at the National Archives

Whatever you do, don't forget your smart luggage - and never, ever meet in smart West End hotels.

That was the top secret advice to would-be communist spies in a previously unseen handbook on surviving in 1930s London.

The alternative tourist guide to London, compiled to aid infiltration into the UK, has been revealed amid hundreds of MI5 documents published at the National Archives.

But the guide also reveals what could be the first concrete link between London and one of the Soviet Union's master spies during the World War II: the head of the "Red Orchestra" anti-Nazi network.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4306523.stm

By Dominic Casciani
BBC News at the National Archives


One of the UK's best known children's authors was watched by MI5 in the 1920s and 30s because it feared he was a traitor working for Moscow.

Arthur Ransome, author of Swallows and Amazons in 1930, married Trotsky's secretary and travelled widely in the Soviet Union for British newspapers.

He kept London informed of what he learnt and intelligence chiefs passed details to the King.

But it took MI5 20 years to finally concede Ransome was loyal to Britain.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4306595.stm

By Dominic Casciani
BBC News
Documents and photographs released by MI5 have given a fascinating insight into the real-life intrigue which inspired James Bond's creator Ian Fleming - from exploding fountain pens to human torpedoes.

So how much truth was there really in Ian Fleming's James Bond? Was it all the over-excited imagination of a writer - or did he let us in on things that really happened?

Ian Fleming spent World War II in naval intelligence - and biographers have charted how his experiences inspired him to create many of 007's finest adventures.

But today MI5 has declassified secret documents shedding further light on the real history of James Bond.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4306221.stm

I liked the Italian human torpedo teams.

And those children's authors -- you always have to keep an eye on them. You never know what they're up to.

You never know, she's always writing about invisibility cloaks, secret maps, passwords, informants for the dark side, and all kinds of espionage stuff.

"Harry Potter & the Tissue of Lies" - forthcoming blockbuster...