Who is the victor now?
Andrew Lownie
CONSPIRACY OF SILENCE by Barrie Penrose and Simon Freeman
Grafton, £14.95
The enduring popular image of Anthony Blunt probably relies heavily on the press conference he gave at the Times soon after he was exposed as a Soviet agent. A gaunt, handsome man declaring that perhaps he had been misguided in putting his friends before his country. The truth about the man is of course less pure or simple and this, the first biography of Blunt, was a splendid opportunity to correct some of the myths surrounding the Cambridge Commintern. It has been a missed opportunity for Conspiracy of Si- lence adds little to the tired old story of the gang of four.
The authors are highly experienced jour- nalists and the book demonstrates all the strengths and weaknesses of their trade. It is fluently written and just about everyone who ever had contact with or an opinion about 'dear Anthony' has been inter- viewed. However, no advantage has been taken of the growing number of FBI and CIA documents currently being declassi- fied nor any attempt made to place Blunt within the context of his times. While there are extensive footnotes no page references are given. This is not a biography but an extended edition of This is Your Life. To be fair the authors faced an uphill task, for Blunt was such a private indi- vidual who rarely betrayed his emotions, that he is a difficult character on which to base a whole book. The very qualities that made him such a successful spy militate against him becoming a sympathetic sub- ject for biography. The only approach is to structure the book around how people reacted to him but the material has to be shaped. Conspiracy of Silence largely con- sists of chunks of undigested and often conflicting quotations, while people are largely taken at their own estimation. When the authors discuss the various individuals under suspicion for their in- volvement in the Cambridge Commintern like Leo Long and John Cairncross their own evidence is used to clear them.
This tendency to take their interviews at face value often means the authors are led up the garden path, and this is especially true with regard to the material from Brian Sewell. The old and ludicrous story about Andrew Gow, a crusty old don at Trinity who shared Anthony's interest in Old Masters and young men, being alternative- ly the Fifth Man or the recruiting don has been swallowed hook, line and sinker. Equally when the two authors attempt to evaluate Anthony's contribution to the study of art they make mistake after mistake both in interpretation and fact. A discreet veil is drawn over the Blunt/Sewell relationship concerning dealing and no mention is made of the extensive criticisms directed at Blunt's studies of Poussin by Denis Mahon and Elizabeth Cropper.
The book's account of Blunt's interroga- tion and immunity are puzzling. Any traineee Intelligence officer knows that initial interviews are never conducted on a one-to-one basis, that mystery witnesses are never identified and the possibility of even partial immunity is never raised. Either the account we have here is wrong or the British threw away the rule book on bluffing when it came to Blunt. The authors quote one official as saying `there was no evidence against him (i.e. Blunt) on which any criminal charge could be based and he obviously had valuable information to give if he could talk. With- out an immunity he would not.' The fact is Blunt could have been persuaded to con- fess if handled in the correct manner. The real fear of any long-term penetration agent is that there will be a `walk-in' defector or a fellow agent turned. Blunt may have had powerful friends in this country but pressure could certainly have been brought to bear if those friends had not been in the Intelligence Service itself. In the event Blunt received his immunity without giving any 'valuable information'.
He continued to stress that he had been recruited by Burgess, the villain of the piece. It is a view shared by the authors but few others with any knowledge of the subject. Blunt was four years older than Burgess and already a postgraduate when the latter came up. It was Blunt who recruited Burgess into the Apostles and many commentators have found it hard to believe the impulsive and indiscreet Burgess could be the power behind the cold and calculating Blunt.
Indeed Blunt after his exposure went to some length to suggest he had been re- cruited in 1935-36 when he was already down in print as saying he had become an active Marxist at the beginning of 1934. (Likewise his claim at the press conference that he had had no contact with the Russians after 1951 was shown to be patently false since he had been in constant touch with his Soviet controller Yuri Mod- in throughout the 1950s.) One of the main questions that has to be answered in any biography of Blunt is the precise relationship he had with Burgess. Sexual networking as much as ideology is a key to the Cambridge Commintern (Burgess is supposed to have slept with Blunt and Maclean) but this aspect is largely overlooked. No convincing ex- planation is given for why the fastidious Blunt should be attracted to the slovenly Burgess or the 'rough trade' that paraded through the front door of the Courthauld as regular as night follows day. Nor is the crucial question of why Blunt with a promising career within the bosom of the establishment should risk it for 'the barba- rians in the East'. Those attempting to understand how a man who had devoted his life to scholarship and the pursuit of truth could continue to have faith in Moscow will have to look elsewhere.
It is ironic that this book should almost have been injuncted given that the authors of Conspiracy of Silence have taken as their theme the fact that 'official secrecy allowed the Cambridge Spies to prosper and official secrecy protected them', and also that there is little in it that is original or perceptive. The authors have dismissed previous books on the subject with 'some of it patent nonsense, some of it unread- ably boring'. It is a fitting epitaph for their book is not the last word on the subject.
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