132,582
edits
Changes
From TheBookbag
Jump to navigationJump to searchThe Man Who Was George Smiley: The Life of John Bingham by Michael Jago (view source)
Revision as of 13:13, 19 February 2013
, 13:13, 19 February 2013no edit summary
He was involved in many of the major wartime operations, such as Operation Double Cross which ensured the success of the D-Day landings. In the post-war period tracking Soviet spies took precedence, but there was unease in MI5 when Harold Wilson became Prime Minister as they suspected him of being dangerously close to the Soviet Union and there were plans for right-wing coups in the late sixties and early seventies. Bingham was involved in monitoring Lord Lucan and others at the time. Bingham (a distant relative and namesake of Lucan) was involved in penetrating the group.
In the nineteen fifties Bingham began the career for which he is probably best known with the publication of his first novel, '’My 'My Name is Michael Sibley’’Sibley''. In total he wrote seventeen books which drew on his career in MI5 in the way that they explored the emotions behind the worst of human behaviour. It would though, be the success of John Le Carre - and particularly of Smiley - which created most problems in the Bingham household. Bingham’s wife, Madeleine - acknowledged to be '’not 'not an easy woman in any sense of the word’’ word'' - bore a grudge that the family received no financial benefit from the success of the Smiley novels.
No one who has read this book can be under any illusions that MI5 put national security before strict adherence to the law.. The family openly spoke of their father being routinely involved in burglary and it became something of a joke. The history of the family and Bingham’s time with MI5 were the highlights of the book - perhaps because this is what the title led me to expect. Unfortunately the details of his subsequent career could only seem a little tame by comparison.
