Need to Know
An Archive of Journalistic Pursuits
Permanently free, Need to Know collects the previously published non-fiction books News of Devils, Rogue Royale, Diamonds in the Rough, Tradecraft, Agent of Influence, A Spy Is Born, and Enemy Action, as well as many other essays and articles that haven’t previously appeared in book form. There’s a lot about espionage, and a lot about Ian Fleming and James Bond, but plenty of other stuff, too. You can read about war heroes and hoaxers, mercenaries who inspired Frederick Forsyth, unreleased music by soul legend Marvin Gaye, Joseph Heller’s script for Casino Royale, and the ethics of journalists with close links to the intelligence world. There’s investigative reporting, reviews, and literary criticism.
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Contents
It was a cold wet evening in the Brussels suburb of Uccle, and Jerry was glad he was nearly home. His assistant had given him a lift to Avenue François Folie, and as he stepped through the gates of the Residence Minerve he was still smiling at the story she had told him about a female colleague asking her out on a date…
It’s Wednesday afternoon: schoolchildren out for the holidays careen along the promenade in cuisse-tax buggies, while pensioners buffeted by the biting North Sea wind struggle to keep hold of tubs of shellfish bought from seafront stands. Gulls circle overhead, and there is an inescapable fishy smell in the air...
Some songs invade your subconscious and refuse to budge. You find yourself humming them on the way to work without even realising it. In 1994, the Scottish band Wet Wet Wet’s cover of the Troggs’ hit Love Is All Around, recorded for the soundtrack of Four Weddings and a Funeral, was such a tune…
Diamonds in the Rough: Investigations Into the Worlds of Ian Fleming and James Bond
‘MI6 LOOKS FOR maladjusted young men who’d give little thought to sacrificing others to protect queen and country. You know—former SAS types with easy smiles and expensive watches…’ So says Vesper Lynd to James Bond in the 2006 film Casino Royale.…
It’s one of the most iconic – and coolest – scenes in modern cinema. A secret agent emerges from water at night wearing a wetsuit, creeps onto a heavily guarded wharf, knocks out a sentry, and plants some plastic explosive in a storage tank. He then unzips his wetsuit to reveal that he is wearing a dinner jacket beneath it, complete with a carnation in the buttonhole. He walks into the nearest bar, glances at his watch and lights a cigarette just as the storage tank erupts into flames behind him…
