Between Silk and Cyanide (81 page)

[21]
Twenty Jakarta Tales published by George G. Harrap 1939.

[22]
It was almost a year before his MC was officially sanctioned.

[23]
Produced at St Martin's Theatre in 1948. Despite its press, it ran in the West End for several months. One benevolent reviewer, C.A. Darlington likened its climax to
The Turn of the Screw
. The others screwed it altogether, though a few were kind enough to suggest that the author try again. Possibly because of its suggestive title and its small cast (it had few other merits), it became an even greater success than Charley's Aunt in repertory amateur companies. It was then inflicted on Australia and South Africa, who in those done nothing to deserve it. It still lingers on, as does this meeting with Noor, fifty years later.

[24]
He was beaten to death three weeks later on the orders of Klaus Barbie.

[25]
Used by a Jedburgh on D-Day.

[26]
Issued in March '44 to a Belgian Agent named Pandarus.

[27]
Issued in September '44 to a Jedburgh. He was killed a week after he'd landed in France.

[28]
I didn't see him again until a few years after the war, when he was mesmerizing the London Palladium with his solo performance. I wanted to go backstage afterwards to hello, but my forebodings had been right: I didn't know what to do for an encore.

[29]
Mallaby was subsequently awarded the MC, which in his case meant Master Coder

[30]
That someone turned out to be Captain O'Bryan-Tear, one of my class-mates at St Paul's. Old Paulines (General Montgomery was one of them) could usually be relied upon to spot other people's discrepancies.

[31]
Issued in May '44 to an agent of D/F section, which specialized in escape routes.

[32]
Some fifty years later Anne typed the whole of this book, probably on the same machine.

[33]
Issued in February 1944 to Denise Bloch (Ambroise), an F section WT operator. She was executed at Ravensbruck in 1945.

[34]
This song, which Maurice Chevalier made famous in the early thirties, was Archambault's reserve poem. Several other agents had asked permission to use it, but it was a case of first come, first disserved.

[35]
I also discovered that she was the deadliest shot her training school had yet encountered. Since she rarely had enough money to buy cigarettes she used to win them at shooting

[36]
The name Blunt had been used by Major Blizzard as a pseudonym when he was head of N section.

[37]
Head of the CIA during Nixon's regime but a major asset when we knew him.

[38]
Like many of our best agents, he had the makings of an actor, though most of our actors, with the exception of Anthony Quayle, were poor agents.

[39]
Her name was Beryl Murray-Davies, and Buckmaster made sure that his agents were taken to her Wimpole Street consulting rooms by car to ensure their arrival.

[40]
I have been advised that for security reasons I must forget how it worked! Has nothing changed in fifty years except Britain's prestige?

[41]
Photographed on to soluble paper, and issued to one of those present as a reserve poem.

[42]
Some fifty years later I met Commander Denniston's son Robin and learned that Denniston senior left Bletchley in '42 to take charge of the department which specialized in breaking diplomatic traffic. To this day neither of us knows the purpose of his visit or how I was of help to him (though I do know how much his son has been able to help me throughout the writing of this book).

[43]
Nor have I since.

[44]
A promise which he honoured despite the opposition of the authorities as he'd given the word of a British officer.