LETTERS I Spy lunch
Sir: That very brave man, Oleg Gordievsky, certainly enjoyed one of the 'sizeable expense accounts' at the disposal of KGB officers which he describes CA globe-trot- ting dirty dozen', 16 January). During the three years he spent in London, ostensibly as a diplomat, Hunched with him every few months in some of the 'best restaurants'.
My only importance to him (and his supe- riors?) seems to have been my apparent closeness — as the Member for Finchley on the Greater London Council — to the Prime Minister who represented the same con- stituency in the House of Commons, Mrs Thatcher. The only thing he ever asked about her, however, was the state of her health, which I easily described as 'robust'.
What I did also learn during that time was the parallel attachment to fine wines and dining of his opposite numbers in the British security services, which I shared as the apparent reward for my efforts on their behalf. Until I called a halt on behalf of my waistline and served morning coffee in my own flat, my lunches with Gordievsky were always followed by a return match with someone from the British side. (Nigel West tells the story in his book about MI6, The Friends.) Although I don't know whether it is true, Nigel West also claims that I helped to save Gordievsky's life. When I alerted my British contacts to the fact that Gordievsky had cancelled our next lunch because he had been recalled early to Moscow, where he was now in a 'sanatorium', there was set in motion the rescue operation which spirit- ed him out of the Soviet Union.
Neville Beale
London SW3
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