Guy Burgess and Tom Driberg in Moscow, mid-1950s
Unlike
the compliant Philby and the conformist Maclean, Burgess
never pretended to enjoy the drab anonymity life in his Russian exile. Moreover, he loved the system and hated
the people. According to the late Tom
Driberg, who wrote his apologia and incidentally
introduced him to the “large underground urinal” in the centre of Moscow, which was “open all
night and frequented by hundreds of questing Slav
homosexuals,” the nonconformist Burgess nonetheless did command
some respect from his official superiors. His political flair had
not come amiss early in 1956, after the Suez fiasco, and Eden’s
enforced retirement, when Burgess had advised, contrary to the prevailing wisdom,
that Macmillan, not R.A. Butler, would be Britain’s next
Prime Minister.
“How on earth did you get it right?” Driberg
asked him.
“Oh,” he replied, “from a study of the life of
the great Lord Salisbury . . .”
From: Andrew Boyle, The Fourth Man, New York, Dial Press, 1980.
Note: This week I read a review of a new Kim
Philby biography that doesn't sound particularly good in terms of providing new
information or insights, but I expect I'll get around to reading it. The
new Amanda Knox autobiography sounds much better on that score. That being
said, continued study and inquiry into the Burgess/Maclean/Philby/Blunt spy
story and its penumbrae will always be rewarding on many levels.
Guy Burgess vacationing on the Black Sea, mid-1950s
No comments:
Post a Comment