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The spy catcher trial: The scandal behind the #1 best seller
vg++ book in vg dw 1st Salem House edition 1989 hardcover In stock shipped from our UK warehouse
322 pages, Hardcover
First published November 7, 1988
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 9, 2025
I found my way to this book after reading Malcolm Turnbull’s A Bigger Picture, which spoke about this case.
The story of the legal proceedings against the publication of Spycatcher is fascinating and still interesting nearly 40 years later. It’s remarkable how determined the British government was to fight it, in the process doing exactly the opposite: driving more people to read the book and pay attention to its contents.
One of the most memorable exchanges from the trial:
> Turnbull: “What is the difference between a misleading impression and a lie?”
Armstrong: “A lie is a straight untruth.”
Turnbull: “What’s a misleading impression, a kind of bent untruth?”
Armstrong: “As one person said, it is perhaps being economical with the truth.”
I’m not legally minded, but I never felt bogged down by legal jargon. Malcolm keeps it concise and easy to follow without losing the nuance.
Now I’m off to read Spycatcher itself—cheers, Mrs Thatcher. Without you, I probably wouldn’t have bothered.
The story of the legal proceedings against the publication of Spycatcher is fascinating and still interesting nearly 40 years later. It’s remarkable how determined the British government was to fight it, in the process doing exactly the opposite: driving more people to read the book and pay attention to its contents.
One of the most memorable exchanges from the trial:
> Turnbull: “What is the difference between a misleading impression and a lie?”
Armstrong: “A lie is a straight untruth.”
Turnbull: “What’s a misleading impression, a kind of bent untruth?”
Armstrong: “As one person said, it is perhaps being economical with the truth.”
I’m not legally minded, but I never felt bogged down by legal jargon. Malcolm keeps it concise and easy to follow without losing the nuance.
Now I’m off to read Spycatcher itself—cheers, Mrs Thatcher. Without you, I probably wouldn’t have bothered.
October 14, 2018
Obviously the reason that I re-read this book in 2015 is because its author had just become the Prime Minister of Australia. I bought and first read it over 25 years previously, but it was still sitting on my shelf, together with Spycatcher itself.
I remember enjoying it at the time, and I thought it well worth looking at again, to get a better sense of Turnbull’s way of thinking.
Set in 1987, it tells the tale of how Malcolm Turnbull (with the able help of his wife Lucy) represented Peter Wright, once an agent of the British Secret Service.
Retired and living on a pittance in Tasmania, Wright had written a memoir of his career, revealing many embarrassing matters including the accusation that Sir Roger Hollis, one time head of MI5, had himself been a Russian mole. The British Government (then headed by Margaret Thatcher) was furiously trying to supress its publication on the grounds of national security. The reason for the British to act this way may seem obvious but in fact Wright had been very careful in Spycatcher not to reveal any currently secret matters, or matters which could compromise current secret operations. He had even offered to let the British ‘blue-pencil’ (edit) his book, but that offer had been rebuffed and the Thatcher Government was trying to claim that the mere existence of a book written by an ex-employee of the secret services was enough to cause Britain significant damage.
Malcolm Turnbull took on the case when most other lawyers were advising Heinemann, the publishers, that it was hopeless.
The Spycatcher Trial is Turnbull’s own account of the ultimately successful proceedings which allowed Wright to publish his memoir, and it makes engrossing reading. There’s some interesting autobiographical information and then we move to the case itself. Naturally, Turnbull shows himself in a very good light, and of course one has to take that with several grains of salt. Nevertheless, it’s impossible to doubt that Turnbull has a very sharp mind and a very determined approach to advocacy.
Much of the entertainment of the book comes from excerpts of the verbatim transcript of the trial, as Turnbull relentlessly pursues Sir Robert Armstrong, the British Cabinet Secretary, and forensically exposes the contradictions and absurdities of the government’s case. Turnbull made it clear that, although Armstrong strongly denied it, the British Government had tacitly allowed the publication of some other books about the Secret Service, books which tended to show the government in a better light.
I remember enjoying it at the time, and I thought it well worth looking at again, to get a better sense of Turnbull’s way of thinking.
Set in 1987, it tells the tale of how Malcolm Turnbull (with the able help of his wife Lucy) represented Peter Wright, once an agent of the British Secret Service.
Retired and living on a pittance in Tasmania, Wright had written a memoir of his career, revealing many embarrassing matters including the accusation that Sir Roger Hollis, one time head of MI5, had himself been a Russian mole. The British Government (then headed by Margaret Thatcher) was furiously trying to supress its publication on the grounds of national security. The reason for the British to act this way may seem obvious but in fact Wright had been very careful in Spycatcher not to reveal any currently secret matters, or matters which could compromise current secret operations. He had even offered to let the British ‘blue-pencil’ (edit) his book, but that offer had been rebuffed and the Thatcher Government was trying to claim that the mere existence of a book written by an ex-employee of the secret services was enough to cause Britain significant damage.
Malcolm Turnbull took on the case when most other lawyers were advising Heinemann, the publishers, that it was hopeless.
The Spycatcher Trial is Turnbull’s own account of the ultimately successful proceedings which allowed Wright to publish his memoir, and it makes engrossing reading. There’s some interesting autobiographical information and then we move to the case itself. Naturally, Turnbull shows himself in a very good light, and of course one has to take that with several grains of salt. Nevertheless, it’s impossible to doubt that Turnbull has a very sharp mind and a very determined approach to advocacy.
Much of the entertainment of the book comes from excerpts of the verbatim transcript of the trial, as Turnbull relentlessly pursues Sir Robert Armstrong, the British Cabinet Secretary, and forensically exposes the contradictions and absurdities of the government’s case. Turnbull made it clear that, although Armstrong strongly denied it, the British Government had tacitly allowed the publication of some other books about the Secret Service, books which tended to show the government in a better light.
November 8, 2016
At times it seems slow to read with the technical jargons and writing style. But it is a good read and a good insight on the spy catcher trail. It is also good to see the young and agile Malcolm Turnbull...
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews