What is interesting is that this book is so different to any other espionage thrillers fact or fiction that I have ever read. It is extraordinarily memorable and unsurprisingly apparently mandatory reading in some countries’ intelligence agencies’ induction programs. Why?

Maybe because the book has been heralded by those who should know as “being up there with My Silent War by Kim Philby and No Other Choice by George Blake”; maybe because Bill Fairclough (the author) deviously dissects unusual topics, for example, by using real situations relating to how much agents are kept in the dark by their spy-masters and (surprisingly) vice versa; and/or maybe because he has survived literally dozens of death defying experiences including 20 plus attempted murders.

The action in Beyond Enkription is set in 1974 about a real maverick British accountant who worked in Coopers & Lybrand (now PwC) in London, Nassau, Miami and Port au Prince. Initially in 1974 he unwittingly worked for MI5 and MI6 based in London infiltrating an organised crime gang. Later he worked knowingly for the CIA in the Americas. In subsequent books yet to be published (when employed by Citicorp, Barclays, Reuters and others) he continued to work for several intelligence agencies. Fairclough has been justifiably likened to a posh version of Harry Palmer aka Michael Caine in the films based on Len Deighton’s spy novels.

Beyond Enkription is a must read for espionage cognoscenti. Whatever you do, you must read some of the latest news articles (since August 2021) in TheBurlingtonFiles website before taking the plunge and getting stuck into Beyond Enkription. You’ll soon be immersed in a whole new world which you won’t want to exit. Intriguingly, the articles were released seven or more years after the book was published. TheBurlingtonFiles website itself is well worth a visit and don’t miss the articles about FaireSansDire. The website is a bit like a virtual espionage museum and refreshingly advert free.

Returning to the intense and electrifying thriller Beyond Enkription, it has had mainly five star reviews so don’t be put off by Chapter 1 if you are squeamish. You can always skip through the squeamish bits and just get the gist of what is going on in the first chapter. Mind you, infiltrating international state sponsored people and body part smuggling mobs isn’t a job for the squeamish! Thereafter don’t skip any of the text or you’ll lose the plots. The book is ever increasingly cerebral albeit pacy and action packed. Indeed, the twists and turns in the interwoven plots kept me guessing beyond the epilogue even on my second reading.

The characters were wholesome, well-developed and beguiling to the extent that you’ll probably end up loving those you hated ab initio, particularly Sara Burlington. The attention to detail added extra layers of authenticity to the narrative and above all else you can’t escape the realism. Unlike reading most spy thrillers, you will soon realise it actually happened but don’t trust a soul.

corrections

After that experience you may not know who to trust so best read Beyond Enkription, the first novel in The Burlington Files series. It’s a noir fact based spy thriller that may shock you. What is interesting is that this book is apparently mandatory reading in some countries’ intelligence agencies’ induction programs. Why? Maybe because the book is not only realistic but has been heralded by those who should know as “being up there with My Silent War by Kim Philby and No Other Choice by George Blake”. It is an enthralling read as long as you don’t expect fictional agents like Ian Fleming’s incredible 007 to save the world or John le Carré’s couch potato yet illustrious Smiley to send you to sleep with his delicate diction, sophisticated syntax and placid plots!

See https://theburlingtonfiles.org/news_2023_06.07.php and https://theburlingtonfiles.org/news_2022.10.31.php.

yes Dean Martin like James Coburn, was more a lark, somewhat like Boysie Oakes of Gardner fame, I came across that first one the Liquidators recently where some bloke played by Rod Taylor, is hired by a Mandarin played by Trevor Howard, to hit specific targets he subcontracts in the style of the day, and comes across a Russian cell in the South of France, who mistake him from an actual agent, much hijinks result,

there was also another film, part of a series with David Niven, No Time for Spies, set largely in Rome and Lebanon, he plays a doctor who is sent to Lebanon on another murky mission, he is contacted by the Secret Service
because of his time in Burma during the last war, interestingly there is an intro
which you can’t quite understand, as a fellow is giving a lecture on Spy techniques, when you run it back, it is clearly someone like Kim Philby who is lecturing the KGB trainees how to handle members of his service, the film is set around 1965, and it shows what Beirut looked when it was the Paris of the Middle East, before Arafat turned into a killing field, for at least the next twenty years, as the Squirrel allowed Fatah to openly carry arms, until the other factions like the Maronites got wise, this I got second hand from Ignatius,

at least as I recall from the Ipcress File, Harry Palmer, has a sojourn through there all of these films were set in this time,the Casino in Jounieh and Beirut proper were set pieces to the story,

I enjoy reading “classic” mysteries (Christie, Sayers, etc) — even thought they are outdated in the sense that what were “major current events” are no longer important factors driving the story, I read them as if they were “historical fiction” — just focused on the recent rather than the distant past.

After all, the authors were actually living through the historical period that they describe, not trying to simulate it through research, which makes it much more authentic “history” than the milieus and characterizations that have to be reconstructed.

But they were fun reads and movies.

Thanks. I’d read some of the novels I was unaware of, except they would probably seem…outdated somehow. Anyhow, great fun. Thanks.

leamas, was from the bank division, they paid off agents, rented safehouses, all the support that an agency like the Circus, Le Carre’s own security service, Cornwell was a relatively low level employee of the Firm, as it was known in the parlance, yet Kim Philby gave him up anyways, for spite, Tinker assumes a not implausible scenario that a traitor could rise up to the top of the organization

Oldman interestingly is protagonists in another modern series, Slough Horse from Mick Herron, on Apple TV, the title refers to a location for operatives that had reached a nadir in their career,

He has a trilogy, co-written with Mike Kupari, called Dead Six:

The summary of the first one:

Michael Valentine, veteran and former member of an elite private military company, has been recruited by the government to conduct a secret counter-terror operation in the Persian Gulf nation of Zubara. The unit is called Dead Six. Their mission is to take the fight to the enemy and not get caught.

Lorenzo, assassin and thief extraordinaire, is being blackmailed by the world’s most vicious crime lord. His team has to infiltrate the Zubaran terrorist network and pull off an impossible heist or his family will die. When Dead Six compromises his objective, Lorenzo has a new job: Find and kill Valentine. As allegiances are betrayed and the nation descends into a bloody civil war, Lorenzo and Valentine must face off. Two men. Two missions. Only one will win.

Not exactly a “spy novel” but good and entertaining. Correia is a good writer, as is Kupari. And you can bet that anything about guns is “dead on balls accurate”… 😀

Correia mostly does SF/Fantasy, but this is pretty much as far from SF/Fantasy as reasonably can be.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1451637586

I don’t think so much that it is “poor”, as much as it just lacks something. And Lazenby isn’t all that bad, he might even have grown into the role, had he played it more (that was the original intention, and I recall seeing something recently that said he originally planned to, but someone convinced him to get out of it… which led to them getting Connery back for DAF).

I don’t know what it is, he just doesn’t *feel* like Bond enough. There’s something he’s lacking though I can’t name it… not as bad as Dalton’s “smarmy” Bond but worse than Moore’s “occasionally” “Businessman Bond” (there are certainly times Moore does have the right feel, just not all the time). Lazenby never ever really felt quite like Bond. He was close but just didn’t step up to cross the line. He felt “cold” instead of “cool”. Probably more like a real secret agent would be, but less like the character should be.

Contrast with Connery and Brosnan, who always manage to feel like “Bond”, and even Craig is pretty consistently “Bond”, though a distinctly angrier, grittier “Bond”.

}}} The Spy Who Came in from the Cold -and- Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

I dunno — both of these managed to take two of the greatest actors of their generation — Richard Burton (for contrast see him in Equus), and Gary Oldman (see him in almost anything! 😀 ) and produce remarkably boring films, such that my own feeling at the end was, “meh.” I just didn’t really care all that much for anyone at all in them, by the endings. Given both their acting talents, that’s really not that easy to do. It may be the books themselves, which I grant have not read, or it may be the screenplay/direction in both cases, was lacking.

}}} 87 comments to this post at this point!
Why so many?
Bizarre.

An interesting topic, and, for once, of interest to a lot of people yet not a depressing political discussion? 😉