Alan Judd

People of little interest: MI5’s view of left-wing intellectuals

Britain’s pro-communist literati complained of harassment by the security services – but few were monitored for any length of time

Churchill’s cousin Clare Sheridan adopted the Soviet cause in 1920 but was eventually dismissed by MI5 as a mischief-maker. [Getty Images] 
issue 25 June 2022
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  • Red List: MI5 and British Intellectuals in the Twentieth Century

    David Caute

    Verso, pp. 352, £20

If MI5 had a Cold War file on you – paper in those happy days – it didn’t mean they thought you were a spy. Nor even that you were especially interesting. Files were a means of storing and retrieving information. They could be general subject files or personal files (PFs) relating to individuals.

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