Their Trade Is Treachery

by Chapman Pincher

The full, unexpurgated truth about the Russian penetration of the world's secret defences

Harry Chapman Pincher is regarded as one of the finest investigative reporters of the twentieth century. Over the course of a glittering six-decade career, he became notorious as a relentless investigator of spies and their secret trade, proving to be a constant thorn in the side of the establishment. So influential was he that Prime Minister Harold Macmillan once asked, �Can nothing be done to suppress Mr Chapman Pincher?’ It is for his sensational 1981 book, Their Trade is Treachery, that he is perhaps best known. In this extraordinary volume he dissected the Soviet Union’s inflitration of the western world and helped unmask the Cambridge Five. He also outlined his suspicions that former MI5 chief Roger Hollis was in fact a super spy at the heart of a ring of double agents poisoning the secret intelligence service from within. However, the Hollis revelation was just one of the book’s many astounding coups. Its impact at the time was immense and highly controversial, sending ripples through the British intelligence and political landscapes. Never before had any writer penetrated so deeply and authoritatively into this world � and few have since. Available now for the first time in thirty years, this eye-opening volume is an incomparable and definitive account of the thrilling nature of Cold War espionage and treachery. The Dialogue Espionage Classics series began in 2010 with the purpose of bringing back classic out-of-print spy stories that should never be forgotten. From the Great War to the Cold War, from the French Resistance to the Cambridge Five, from Special Operations to Bletchley Park, this fascinating spy history series includes some of the best military, espionage and adventure stories ever told.

Genres: Espionage, History, Nonfiction, Historical, Politics, War, Military Fiction

297 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

Harry Chapman Pincher was an Indian-born British journalist, historian, and novelist whose writing mainly focused on espionage and related matters, after some early books on scientific subjects.

Harry Chapman Pincher was born in India in 1914 while his father was serving in the British Army. After moving to Great Britain, Chapman Pincher studied first at Darlington Grammar School and then King's College London before entering the teaching profession. He served in the Ministry of Supply during the Second World War and then embarked upon a lengthy and successful career in journalism, joining the Daily Express as a science and defence correspondent. Famed for his exposés, he was regarded as one of the finest investigative reporters of the twentieth century. Chapman Pincher penned a number of books both non-fiction and fiction and was the author of the notorious Their Trade is Treachery. Prior to his death he lived in West Berkshire with his wife, Billee.

Reviews

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

An exhaustive work, the aim to expose the Soviet spies walking the corridors of power in the ‘free and democratic’ nations of the world: more specifically Britain, however his investigations did reach as far as our greatest ally [America].

It seems our intelligence services [Britain] have stumbled from one disaster to another for decades.

A real eye-opener for me.

For the gang, I will refer you to a book I favour: Boris did say, “Who can you trust?”

[Mike Winters · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are many sides to any enquiry into the loyalty of government officials: there will always be arguments, counter claims and doubts cast. Friends will, sponsors invariably show support. When I read this, I found the evidence to be compelling: it stacks up.

[Poppy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Crikey!

Reds under the bed? In the wardrobe? In the cupboard under the stairs? Working alongside of you?

I'd suggest, Mr Pincher was a very brave man. I do wonder if he checked under his car before he drove to work.

Londongrad???

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

How much of this would have stayed in a locked drawer?

Mr Pincher, I've read, is viewed by some as a bit of a showman. I quite like the showman, having read this.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy to see why Mr Pincher was talked of as a legend with his profession.

One has to judge whether the country benefits from the dirty washing being hung out for the public to see or not. I'm of the mind that we should applaud the author.

At times, I found sections to be more of a rant, but even so, I glad I picked it up.

[Steve Mitchell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although Chapman Pincher’s book here mainly concentrates upon the Cambridge spy ring of Maclean, Burgess, Philby, Blunt and the elusive fifth man, he covers the whole of the Soviet penetration of the Western world during the twentieth century. Although the suspects still alive at the time the book was written are not named - through the fear of the author succumbing to our vastly unfair libel laws – those that cannot respond to the charges are all named. This includes Sir Roger Hollis who Peter Wright decided was the fifth man in his book “Spycatcher.” Pincher’s conclusion is that Hollis probably was a Soviet agent in the pay of the KGB; but the fifth man was a scientist that did not have access to Britain’s atomic secrets.
Well worth a read for anybody with an interest of the cloak-and-dagger of Realpolitik, especially for the contents of the postscript. At the end of the book Pincher likens Margaret Thatcher’s statement to the House of Commons following the revelation that Anthony Blunt was the fourth man which effectively cleared Hollis of any wrongdoing with Harold Macmillan’s statement in 1955 that effectively ‘cleared’ Philby. Pincher asserts that Thatcher’s certitude could return to haunt her could explain the fact that she was determined to suppress the publication of “Spycatcher” - which provides much more evidence to demonstrate the likelihood that the head of MI5 was indeed controlled by Moscow – more from the personal embarrassment she would suffer than any threat to national security.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having read Spycatcher, Peter Wright, which left a little distaste over a few issues, this I found mouthwatering and I suggest it fits most of the pegs into their respective holes and nails the coffin lid down firmly. Also, this work, as does Spycatcher and Defending the Realm, by Mark Hollingsworth, underlines the absolute necessity for oversight of the 'internal security' within the security services by a committee of some kind, independent of the security services.
The obvious, continued aggression of the Russian intelligence services, outlined here, towards the UK and other western powers cannot be effectively countered by underfunded government departments that police themselves.
Anyone who wishes to more fully understand the ongoing threat posed by Russia needs to ignore what the present government are telling us and read this.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

The (sometimes) embarrassing workings within the government machine. Mr Pincher deserves applause.

[Naomi · Rating 3 out of 5]

It shocks me to think how the establishment's failures across the board are dismissed and without the fine work of Pincher there would be little chance of the security services being forced or wanting to put right the long-standing mess they found themselves in.

[FiveBooks]

Bestselling spy novelist Charles Cumming has chosen to discuss Their Trade is Treachery by Chapman Pincher on FiveBooks as one of the top five on his subject - Espionage, saying that:

"...Chapman Pincher is about 95, still alive, and has been a thorn in the side of the Establishment throughout his long career as a journalist. In the early 1980s, he published Their Trade is Treachery, in which he alleged that Sir Roger Hollis, who had been the head of MI5, was a Soviet agent. The book caused a great scandal when it was published...."

The full interview is available here: http://fivebooks.com/interviews/charl...

[Mr. G COLVILLE · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spy or no spy

This book is a very detailed examination of the facts surrounding the existence or otherwise of Soviet spies inside Western intelligence agencies before, during and after World War II. Much of this information has been suppressed by various governments and the security services in order to protect people still alive or to hide the incompetence of various security agencies' failure to identify and expose suspect individuals. It is a very interesting read despite its length and very detailed contents. Well worth reading for anyone who lived through the years involved.

[Bahman Bahman]

British journalist Chapman Pincher dissected the whole of the Soviet penetration of the western world during the twentieth century, helped unmask the Cambridge Five, and outlined his suspicions that former MI5 chief Peter Hollis was a Soviet super-spy at the heart of a ring of double-agents, poisoning the Secret Intelligence Service from within.

Chapman Pincher began a career in journalism, joining the Daily Express as a science and defense correspondent at the end of the Second World War. He was regarded as one of the UK's finest investigative reporters of the twentieth century. He died in 2014.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is an eye-opening exposé that delves into the shadowy world of espionage and intelligence operations during the Cold War. Pincher's meticulous research and insider knowledge reveal the intricate web of deception and betrayal that defined this covert era, making it a must-read for history enthusiasts and espionage aficionados alike. The book aligns with the theories outlined in Spycatcher by Peter Wright about Roger Hollis being a KGB agent.

[Richard Bartholomew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Biteback’s reissue of Their Trade is Treachery appeared in 2014, the year of its author’s death. Like other Biteback books it is elegantly typeset, and it has a more extensive index than the previous edition, but it isn’t an update – references in it to “the first edition” are from the 1982 paperback referring to the 1981 hardback (a point not quite clear from the copyright page). As such, some points where Pincher held back due to libel laws remain unresolved, and the new introduction by Michael Smith, the “Dialogue Espionage Classics” series editor, is concerned mostly with reanimating the book’s creaky thesis that Roger Hollis, who was the head of MI5 from 1956 to 1965, had been a spy for the Soviet Union:

[T]he claims made in this book retain a remarkable credibility, largely because Hollis spent the vast majority of the period between 1927 and 1933 in China… [He] travelled out to China as a journalist, ostensibly to cover the communist uprising, and is known to have associated with long-term Soviet agents like Agnes Smedley and Richard Sorge.

However, Smith isn’t prepared to invest too much professional capital in this, and he also acknowledges that Hollis’s subsequent position in China working for British American Tobacco was “a frequent cover for MI6 officers”. Thus “it is by no means certain that he was working for Moscow”.

The case against Hollis having been a Soviet spy has been put much more strongly elsewhere. Ben Macintyre, writing in The Times a week after Pincher’s death, famously scoffed at what he called Paranoia Hollisiensis, despite his general respect for Pincher’s work.

In his authorised history of MI5, Christopher Andrew demolishes the case against Hollis as “the passionately held but intellectually threadbare conspiracy theories of a disruptive minority”. So far from protecting suspected communist spies, Andrew points out, Hollis was among the first to warn about the dangers of Soviet penetration. Alone among senior MI5 officers, he always harboured doubts about the loyalties of Anthony Blunt.

… When the Soviet intelligence archives briefly opened up in the 1990s, there was much evidence about British spies, but nothing to incriminate Hollis. No former Soviet intelligence officer came forward to claim credit for running him. Indeed, the woman identified as his Soviet controller dismissed the idea as “utterly ridiculous”.

Smith does, though, make explicit Pincher’s reliance on Peter Wright, which came to light as part of the “Spycatcher affair” a few years after this book was first published. Wright is never mentioned in the text, but his guiding influence will be obvious to anyone who has first read Spycatcher (reviewed here).

Like Wright, Pincher ranges far more widely than just the case against Hollis. As in Spycatcher, the figure of Antony Blunt looms large, and we are told the interesting detail that

though [Philby] has been almost admired for his bland evasions, his performance was poor compared with that of the fragile-looking Anthony Blunt, who far more persuasively withstood eleven interrogations, starting in 1951.

Blunt comes across as devious and self-servingly selective in his recollections (and apparent regrets), and Pincher has no time for the possible mitigation that passing secrets to Russia at a time when Britain was allied with the USSR against the Nazis wasn’t so bad: Stalin was more than willing to pass information to the Germans that would help his enemy slow the advance of the Western allies.

Also as in Spycatcher, there are references to the Profumo affair, with Pincher charging that Hollis failed to warn the Foreign Office about Yevgeny Ivanov’s spying: “Without Ivanov, the Socialists could not have pursued the alleged security aspects of the affair and would not have attempted to censure Profumo on moral grounds.” This tone of reproof against “Socialists” becomes increasingly shrill towards the end of the book, with much of the Parliamentary Labour Party supposedly infiltrated by “crypto-Communists” working directly under Soviet control. He verges on accusing Michael Foot, and we have to wonder to what extent he was here carrying water for right-wing elements among his security contacts – certainly, he is more alarmist than Wright.

One tell is his claim that

when Maurice Oldfield was posted to Washington by the Secret Service [MI6] he volunteered to undergo a CIA polygraph test to convince the American authorities that, as a bachelor, he had no homosexuality problem.

It was later revealed, of course, that Oldfield had indeed been homosexual, as Pincher himself acknowledges in later works. Can it really be that Pincher had no knowledge or even suspicion about this, despite being Oldfield's friend? If Pincher was willing to misdirect on this point, for whatever reason, what other material should we take with some grains of salt?

Despite these caveats, however, the book is informative and written in a crisp, no-nonsense style. Pincher showed how secrecy could be a convenient cover for incompetence, and his warnings about infiltration cannot all be dismissed out of hand. The book deserves the second outing given it by Biteback.

[Spurnlad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent expose of the upper class spies active in MI5 and the Secret Service during and after WW2.

The only disappointment was the feeble and unconvincing attempt to tar post war union leaders and members with the same Spy brush, which was very petty seeming

[Natali Clark · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to read this twice... well worth the time.

I doubt the author has stretched the truth that far and I can see why the government wanted him gagged:.... can't have the plebs knowing the truth of things, can we.

[Jimp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cat's out of the bag.

All those times of wondering who was opening time in the stationary cupboard or on the back stairs.

A scintillating read and a revelation.

[Wayne Richardson · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Squeemu · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting, quick read, but a lot of his information seems to be based on, "Just trust me when I say I have a reliable source for this." Which. Considering his sources are all (counter)espionage officers who don't want to be named suggests the book should be taken with a large helping of salt. He is also very keen on pointing out everyone in Britain who had had, at any point, homosexual encounters and then using it as additional proof for why they are probably KGB agents.

[Jim welford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Couldnt put this book down.

This book is dynamite and makes you wonder who you can trust i feel this ought to be compulsary reading and after reading i think there are still lots of people inn government today who think putin is still better than sliced bread.