Espionage

Johann Heinrich von Bernstorff was born in London in 1862. His father Albrecht was a Prussian Count and experienced diplomat who had just spent seven years as the Prussian ambassador to Great Britain. Shortly before Johann’s birth he had…

Like most people involved in espionage, Moura Budberg was largely a creature of her own invention. She spent most of her life shrouded in lies, but she knew the trick to getting people to believe them. It wasn’t just “a kernel of truth”, as…

I awoke with a gentle-ish flailing of my limbs. I always find it best to start off in the waking world with some spastic limb flailing to get the body pumped up for all the rad stuff I put it through. Though this has led to several…

I’m sitting here in my most relaxed yoga pose (upwards facing badger), typing this letter to you from my room in a luxury five star Hong Kong hotel for which I hope you will reimburse me. Bottles of champagne and jars of caviar litter the…

“The most famous secret agent in history” is somewhat of a contradiction in terms. If someone is famous, they’re hardly that secret. Sidney Reilly avoids this contradiction by being impossible to pin down. His real name, his place of birth…