Red Joan (46 page)

And it is not just a kiss. It is also a promise.

 

 

The inspiration for this book came from a newspaper article published in 1999 in the
Times
(snappily captioned ‘The Spy Who Came In From The Co-op') in which Melita Norwood was identified at the age of eighty-seven as having been the most important and longest-serving Soviet spy of the Cold War era. New evidence to identify her became available when Vasili Mitrokhin defected to Britain from the KGB in 1992, bringing with him a huge number of painstakingly copied files previously unseen by the British intelligence services. Norwood was dubbed the ‘granny spy,' making a televised statement to the press in her garden in which she was, disappointingly if unsurprisingly, rather economical with the truth, and not hugely remorseful. Norwood's case was later considered by Parliament and a decision was made by the Home Secretary not to prosecute on the grounds of age. I was in the middle of a history degree at Cambridge University when I read this story, and subsequently took a paper led by Professor Christopher Andrew, the historian contacted by Vasili Mitrokhin when he first left Russia and the coauthor of the various volumes of the Mitrokhin Archive which finally identified Melita Norwood, and it was during that time that
Red Joan
was born.

Apart from having Che Guevara mugs and not wishing to receive any payment for their activities, the only resemblance between Melita Norwood and Joan Stanley is that they both worked as personal assistants to the directors of important metals research facilities during the Cold War (Norwood working at the British Non-Ferrous Metals Association from 1932 to 1972, and Joan working in a ficticious department albeit located for the purposes of the novel in the real-life Cavendish Laboratories at the University of Cambridge), thus giving them access to the highest-level documents on atomic research in the project known as Tube Alloys, while also retaining a level of protection from suspicion which came largely from the fact of their gender. The differences between the two women (one real, one not) are varied and multiple, and Joan Stanley is not intended to be a representation of Melita Norwood. Whereas Joan has a university degree in science and a high level of technical knowledge, Melita Norwood had neither of these advantages, and whereas Joan displays a wavering attitude towards communism, Melita Norwood remained a committed communist right until the end, visiting Russia after her retirement and continuing to distribute the
Morning Star
around her neighbourhood in Bexleyheath beyond her eighty-ninth birthday. In many ways her story is quite remarkable, but it is not the story I wanted to tell here.

The character of Sonya is loosely based on Melita Norwood's controller during this time, one of the very few female controllers operating during the Cold War, Ursula Beurton (also known as Ruth and codenamed Sonya) who trained in China and then operated a radio system in a farmhouse near Oxford with her husband. The case of Kierl was inspired by the trial and prosecution of atomic spy Klaus Fuchs in 1949, who was also controlled by Beurton (whereas Kierl is controlled here by Leo and remains in Canada).

The setting of much of the story is in some ways inevitable, Cambridge being infamous for its cultivation of some of the most famous KGB spies this country has produced and who were all in Cambridge a little before Joan, but their influence is intended to be felt through Leo, Rupert and William. Leo's thesis is largely based on the research interests of Maurice Dobb and Michal Kalecki, both Cambridge Marxist economists who were interested in the theory of Soviet Planning and its practical wartime implications.

Any other resemblances to persons real or imaginary are entirely unintentional.

 

A large number of books were extremely useful in researching the background to this book and I would like to mention the following which were of particular help:

 

The Mitrokhin Archive: The KGB in Europe and the West
, Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin (London, Penguin, 2000)

The Spy Who Came in From the Co-op: Melita Norwood and the ending of the Cold War
, Dr. David Burke (Woodbridge, Boydell Press, 2008)

Bluestockings
:
The Remarkable Story of the First Women to Fight for an Education
, Jane Robinson (London, Viking, 2009)

My Sister: Rosalind Franklin
, Jenifer Glyn (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2012)

Klaus Fuchs: The Man Who Stole the Atom Bomb
, Norman Moss (New York, St. Martin's Press, 1987)

The Thirties: An Intimate History
, Judith Gardiner (London, Harper Press, 2010)

Soviet Economic Development Since 1917,
Maurice Dobb (London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1947)

 

The National Archives at Kew were also an invaluable resource, with all of the interviews and reports being based, in some fashion, on genuine reports, particularly in relation to MI5's pursuit and interrogation of Klaus Fuchs. There is one deliberate anomaly in the dates where I have referred to the Tube Alloys project as being in existence under this name in 1941, when in fact it was not given this name until 1942.

Please visit my website at www.jennierooney.com for further information.

This novel went through a number of drafts and my unending thanks go to the people who have given their support, advice and encouragement at each stage: my agent, Clare Alexander, for never holding back with suggestions of improvements and nuggets of wisdom; my editors at Chatto & Windus, Juliet Brooke, whose insightful notes on each draft were almost worth publishing in themselves; and Clara Farmer for her enthusiasm and guidance throughout. Further thanks and appreciation also go to everyone at Random House, especially Lisa Gooding and Will Smith. In addition, I'd like to thank Suzanne Dean for her beautiful cover design.

My very grateful thanks also go to those who have generously given their time and assistance to the research of this book: Dr. Peter Holmes of the University of Sussex for his general comments and for suggesting the idea for Leo's thesis; Dr Alix McCollam of Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands who corrected my rather shaky understanding of nuclear physics with admirable indulgence (and Dr. Richard Samworth for putting us in touch); Dr. David Burke for sharing his knowledge of Melita Norwood's political activities with me, as well as elaborating on the fascinating story of his involvement with her at the time of her exposure in the national newspapers. In addition, I am grateful for the assistance of Anne Thomson, archivist at Newnham College, Cambridge, for being generous with her time and knowledge, and for the general assistance given to me by staff at the National Archives in Kew. As ever, any lingering factual mistakes and discrepancies are my own.

I would also like to give special thanks to friends and family who experienced the trauma of being early readers of the manuscript, and whose comments, big and small, were hugely appreciated: particularly my mum, dad and brothers, Tammy Holmes, Peter Holmes, Ann Holmes, Gillian Hardcastle, Sarah Beckett, and the members of my fabulous ‘focus group': Frankie Whitelaw, Emma Clancey, Della Fanning, Helen Harper, Emma Whiteford, Sarah Machen, Lucy Stoy and Kate Wilson, whose willingness to critique with reckless abandon was not just admirable, but also hugely helpful. Thanks also to Joan Winter (she knows why) and to my family and friends who kindly continued to ask how the novel was coming on. But most of all, thank you to Mark, without whom it would all have felt like pretty hard work.

 

Jennie Rooney was born in Liverpool in 1980. She studied history at the University of Cambridge and taught English in France before moving to London to work as an attorney. Her first novel,
Inside the Whale
, was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award.