A Very Dangerous Woman: The Lives, Loves and Lies of Russia's Most Seductive Spy (79 page)
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Authors: Deborah McDonald,Jeremy Dronfield
Tags: #Biography & Autobiography, #Historical
BOOK: A Very Dangerous Woman: The Lives, Loves and Lies of Russia's Most Seductive Spy
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| 11 | MacGibbon related this story in a 12-page affidavit signed on his deathbed in 2000 (see articles by Michael Evans and Magnus Linklater in The Times , 30 Oct. 2004, pp. 1–3; also H. MacGibbon, ‘Diary: My Father the Spy’, London Review of Books , 16 Jun. 2011, pp. 40–41). |
| 12 | Moura Budberg MI5 file, note, 26 Jul. 1950. |
| 13 | Moura Budberg MI5 file, extract from note by B2a on ‘Developments in the MacGibbon Case’, 18 Aug. 1950. |
| 14 | Macintyre, A Spy Among Friends , pp. 169–70. Skardon’s reputation was probably overinflated by his success with Fuchs. He failed to break both Kim Philby and Anthony Blunt, despite interrogating them both multiple times. |
| 15 | Moura Budberg MI5 file, note from B2a, 28 Aug. 1950. |
| 16 | Moura Budberg MI5 file, note marked Top Secret, 2 Oct. 1950. |
| 17 | Moura Budberg MI5 file, interview with Rebecca West, 30 Jan. 1951. |
| 18 | West, H. G. Wells , pp. 139–40. West recalls his mother’s jealousy in ‘My Father’s Unpaid Debts of Love’, Observer Review , 11 Jan. 1976, p. 17. |
| 19 | Moura Budberg MI5 file, minute sheet, no. 239, 12 Feb. 1951. |
| 20 | Moura Budberg MI5 file, report by U35, 19 Jun. 1951. |
| 21 | Moura Budberg MI5 file, report by U35, 28 Jun. 1951. |
| 22 | West & Tsarev, The Crown Jewels , p. 180; Carter, Anthony Blunt , pp. 321, 331. |
| 23 | Moura Budberg MI5 file, report by U35, 2 Jul. 1951. Klop gave a detailed account of this vital meeting in his report. |
| 24 | Moura Budberg MI5 file, report by U35, 10 Aug. 1951. |
| 25 | Kyril Zinovieff, interview with Andrew Boyle, CUL Add 9429/2B/125. |
| 26 | Moura Budberg MI5 file, report by U35, 28 Aug. 1951. |
| 27 | Moura Budberg MI5 file, report by U35, 25 Oct. 1951. |
| 28 | Drazin, Korda , pp. 346–7. |
| 29 | Korda, Charmed Lives , p. 323. |
| 30 | Korda, Charmed Lives , p. 403. |
Chapter 26: The End of Everything
| 1 | Weidenfeld, George Weidenfeld , p. 132. |
| 2 | Boothby began a relationship with Kray in 1963 and later campaigned for the brothers’ release from prison. In 1964 the Sunday Mirror ran a story suggesting a sexual relationship between the two. Boothby sued and won. Decades later, letters came to light confirming that there was a close relationship (see Sunday Telegraph , 26 Jul. 2009). |
| 3 | Boothby, Boothby , p. 199. Moura’s discernment, in Boothby’s opinion, was confirmed by her sharing his love of Turgenev. |
| 4 | Michael Burn, interview with Andrew Boyle, CUL Add 9429/2B/115 (i). |
| 5 | David Lean, interview in The Times , 9 Dec. 1981, p. 8. |
| 6 | L. P. Hartley, ‘The Sheep and the Goats’, Observer , 25 Jun. 1939, p. 6; Edward Crankshaw, ‘Russian vignettes’, Observer , 18 Jun. 1972, p. 33. |
| 7 | Some who knew Moura’s work claimed that she was generally not a good translator. For instance, Nina Berberova makes derogatory remarks about her translations into Russian. Likewise, Moura’s friend Hamish Hamilton, from whom she obtained a lot of work, said that her translations were not always good. In Hamilton’s case, it may be that he conflated the translations she did in old age (when, according to George Weidenfeld, she lost her ability to work so diligently and began farming out to her relatives) with her earlier work. Archived reviews of her translations between the 1930s and 1960s are generally excellent. When she felt that the source material warranted it, she exerted herself and produced fine work; in other cases, it was alleged, she would fail to pin down the true meanings of idioms, and even passages if they were difficult. |
| 8 | Roger Machell, interview with Andrew Boyle, CUL Add 9429/2B/118(i). |
| 9 | Pendennis, The Observer , 5 May 1963, p. 13. |
| 10 | Quoted by Michael Burn, interview with Andrew Boyle, CUL Add 9429/2B/115(ii). |
| 11 | Equivalent to about £110,000 now. |
| 12 | Hamish and Yvonne Hamilton, Roger Machell, Baron Robert Boothby, interviews with Andrew Boyle, CUL Add 9429/2B/113 & 118(i). |
| 13 | The Times , 11 Dec. 1964, p. 5. |
| 14 | Baron Robert Boothby, Hamish Hamilton, interviews with Andrew Boyle, CUL Add 9429/2B/113 and 118. |
| 15 | Hamish and Yvonne Hamilton, interview with Andrew Boyle, CUL Add 9429/2B/118(i). |
| 16 | Rebecca West, letter to Andrew Boyle, 9 Sep. 1980, CUL Add 9429/2B/106(i). |
| 17 | Moura, letters to Lockhart, 29 Dec. 1931, 17 Jan. 1932, HIA. |
| 18 | Mrs A. Knopf, letter to Baroness Budberg, 14 Sep. 1951, AAK. |
| 19 | Moura Budberg, letter to Blanche Knopf, 27 Dec. 1952, AAK. |
| 20 | Joan M. Rodker, letter to the editor, Observer , 29 Dec. 1974; obituary of Joan Rodker, Daily Telegraph , 23 Jan. 2011. |
| 21 | Hamish Hamilton, interview with Andrew Boyle, CUL Add 9429/2B/118; Robin Bruce Lockhart, Reilly , p. 83. |
| 22 | The Times , 24 Apr. 1962, p. 14. |
| 23 | The Times , 8 Apr. 1967, p. 9; reviewed in the Guardian , 5 Jul. 1967. |
| 24 | Quoted in Robin Bruce Lockhart, Reilly , p. 84. |
| 25 | Weidenfeld, George Weidenfeld , pp. 133–4. |
| 26 | Chukovsky, diary entry for 30 Apr. 1962, Diaries , p. 464. |
| 27 | Ustinov, Dear Me , p. 345. |
| 28 | Graham Greene, letter to Robert Cecil, 14 Feb. 1989, papers of Robert Cecil in possession of his daughter, via Andrew Lownie. |
| 29 | Lord Ritchie Calder, interview with Andrew Boyle, CUL Add 9429/2B/124 (ii). |
| 30 | West, H. G. Wells , p. 142. |
| 31 | Moura, letter to Lockhart, LL. Undated: probably Mar. 1953. |
| 32 | Marina Majdalany, interview with Andrew Boyle, CUL Add 9429/2B/121(ii). |
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