Spy story

Spymaster by Martin Pearce review – story of the MI6 boss ruined by scandal

He was one of the first to suspect that Kim Philby was a Soviet spy, helped to keep Britain out of the Vietnam war and restored MI6’s reputation after the scandals and disasters of the 1950s, 60s and early 70s involving enemy agents, coups and assassination plots. Maurice Oldfield, the northern former grammar school boy invited by John le Carré to meet Alec Guinness before the actor played George Smiley in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, was sometimes also described as a model for Ian Fleming’s M. Yet the “owlish son of a farmer”, as Martin Pearce, his nephew, calls him, was hung out to dry by Margaret Thatcherafter smears relating to his sexuality.