Agent Molière: The Life of John Cairncross, the Fifth Man of the Cambridge Spy Circle

313 Pages·2020·2.775 MB·English

by  Geoff Andrews

Agent Molière
ii
Agent Molière
The Life of John Cairncross, the Fifth
Man of the Cambridge Spy Circle
Geoff Andrews
I.B. TAURIS
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
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First published in Great Britain 2020
Copyright © Geoff Andrews, 2020
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Contents
Acknowledgements vii
Note on sources x
Prologue: The chase 1
1 A Scottish education 7
2 From Glasgow to Germany 19
3 A political awakening 31
4 Cambridge 51
5 The Foreign Office 67
6 Agent Molière 81
7 Appeasement 93
8 A political career begins 109
9 Bletchley Park 127
10 Enter Graham Greene 139
11 Cold War and resignation 155
12 An Italian escape 173
13 Professor Cairncross 189
vi Contents
14 Confession and exile (again) 205
15 Hot autumn 217
16 Public exposure 231
17 The Fifth Man 247
Epilogue: Fact and fiction in the life of John
Cairncross 265
Notes 273
Select Bibliography 290
Index 294
Acknowledgements
Following the publication of my previous book, The Shadow Man,
a biography of James Klugmann, the Cambridge communist who
recruited John Cairncross to work for the Soviets, I met Gayle
Brinkerhoff, Cairncross’s widow, who told me about her life with him. I
was intrigued and decided to look more into his background. It seemed
to me that existing accounts, particularly those from journalists and
so-called molehunters, did not really ‘get’ John Cairncross at all: they
often misunderstood or misrepresented his motivations, distorted his
Scottish background and attributed to him political ideas that he did not
hold. Above all, he suffered in comparison to the other four members
of the Cambridge spy circle. Assumptions made about them were
inevitably applied to him, but in doing so often obscured the important
facts of his life before, during and after his period as a Soviet agent. As
I researched his life, Gayle was always supportive, providing access to
papers as well as contacts and contributing ideas and reflections, but
never obstructive; we agreed early on that I would do the biography
entirely in my own way. Gayle and David Gow have been very generous
with their time throughout the writing of the book, and I’m very grateful
to them for suggestions and pointers along the way.
Similar gratitude is due to the Cairncross family, who provided me with
further insight, reflections and permission to use family correspondence
and papers. I am particularly grateful to David Cairncross for clarifying
points and reading over sections and Frances Cairncross for
permission to use her father’s papers and for passing on miscellaneous
correspondence. Philip Cairncross and Sandy Cairncross made helpful
suggestions on later drafts.
Former friends and colleagues of John Cairncross were invaluable
during the research for this book, and I am particularly grateful to David
viii Acknowledgements
Rubin for reflecting on his friendship with Cairncross (including his
estimation of him as a scholar) and for sharing some of his expertise
of French literature. Thanks are due to Allan Evans for sending me his
memoir of John Cairncross in Rome and telling me of Cairncross’s
connection with Frances Keene. Declan and Jeannette Walton were
excellent hosts and generous in reminiscing about their time with John
and Gabi Cairncross in Rome and Geneva, and I benefited from their
constant interest and encouragement.
They also set me on the trail of other former FAO colleagues in
Rome, Kay Killingsworth and Silvia Balit, who recounted not only her
memories of John but also the earlier friendship between him and her
parents. While in Rome, I was fortunate to meet Fiorenzo Niccoli, one
of Cairncross’s old friends in Parioli, who spoke of their times together,
including their unofficial membership of the Parioli dog-walking circle.
It was a pleasure to collaborate with Marco Zatterin of La Stampa,
who was generous with his time and contacts. Nick Parmée told me
more about his father, Douglas Parmée, Cairncross’s best friend at
Cambridge, over a convivial lunch at the French House in Soho.
Richard Norton-Taylor has been supportive and encouraging from
the start of this project. I am grateful to Richard Davenport-Hines for
advice and suggestions; he continues to set a formidable example for
any historian and biographer. I enjoyed meeting and exchanging ideas
about John Cairncross and Donald Maclean with Roland Philipps. In
addition, I would like to thank the following who helped in various ways:
David Broadhead, Secretary of the Travellers Club, Andy Young, my
old friend from Ruskin, for taking me to Lesmahagow, Jonathan Byrne
of the Bletchley Park Trust, David Cahn, David Farrell of Cleveland,
Ohio, Caroline Moorehead, Andrew Lownie, Ann Lawson Lucas, Anita
Sandhu, Tom Buchanan and Richard Heffernan and colleagues in the
Politics and International Studies Department of the Open University.
I am indebted to staff from several libraries and archives, including
Glasgow University Library; John Wells and colleagues in the
Manuscripts Department of Cambridge University Library; Jonathan
Smith and colleagues at the Wren Library, Trinity College, Cambridge;
Emily Patterson and James Cox at Gonville and Caius College Archives;
and Meirian Jump at the Marx Memorial Library. I am also grateful to
librarians and archivists at the BBC Written Archives at Caversham
Acknowledgements ix
for permission to use correspondence related to John Cairncross’s
broadcasting work, the National Archives in Kew, the Imperial War
Museum, the Anglo-Jewish Association, the John J. Burns Library of
Rare Books and Special Collections at Boston College, Massachusetts
(for permission to use the correspondence of Graham Greene), the
Fondazione Biblioteca Benedetto Croce in Naples, the Bodleian Library,
Oxford, and the London Library.
Jo Godfrey, my editor at I.B. Tauris, encouraged the book from
the start and once again provided insightful comment and support
throughout. I’m grateful to her colleagues, notably Olivia Dellow, for help
at various stages of the book’s progress.
Geoff Andrews