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Guy Burgess: A portrait with background
Since their dramatic departure for Moscow in May 1951, Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean have excited as much public interest and made more newspaper headlines than any of the most illustrious of their contemporaries. Most of what has been said or written about them so far has been based on mere speculation - but in August this year Tom Driberg went to Russia and put got the inside story for the first time. Fleet Street has hailed his achievement as a "world scoop". Guy Burgess gave him his own account of the fantastic events which led to his becoming one of the "missing diplomats": his motives, the mechanics of his and Maclean's journey, his reception in Russia, and his life five years after.
Driberg had known Burgess when he worked for the BBC and wrote to him suggesting the visit and the book. To his surprise, the proposal was accepted: for a month he lived in Moscow and saw Burgess alone almost daily. He talked to him frankly and freely and got his answers to the questions that have been the subject of world-wide speculation for more than five years.
A successful journalist, a former Labour M.P., and a man who had been a friend of Burgess before it all happened, Tom Driberg has drawn a Portrait with Background which would be remarkable if it were only a character study of a brilliant, if wayward, young man. It has the additional merit of throwing light on one of the most baffling mysteries of the twentieth century.
Driberg had known Burgess when he worked for the BBC and wrote to him suggesting the visit and the book. To his surprise, the proposal was accepted: for a month he lived in Moscow and saw Burgess alone almost daily. He talked to him frankly and freely and got his answers to the questions that have been the subject of world-wide speculation for more than five years.
A successful journalist, a former Labour M.P., and a man who had been a friend of Burgess before it all happened, Tom Driberg has drawn a Portrait with Background which would be remarkable if it were only a character study of a brilliant, if wayward, young man. It has the additional merit of throwing light on one of the most baffling mysteries of the twentieth century.
143 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1956
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About the author
Tom Driberg
18 books1 followerAt the age of eight he began as a day-boy at the Grange school in Crowborough. He subsequently won a classics scholarship to Christ Church, Oxford.
One of his poems,, in the style of Edith Sitwell, was published in 'Oxford Poetry 1926' and when Sitwell visited Oxford to deliver a lecture, he invited her to have tea with him, and she accepted. After her lecture he found an opportunity to recite one of his own poems, and was rewarded when Sitwell declared him 'the hope of English poetry'. He regarded Sitwell as his mentor.
Later his social contacts led to him getting a permanent contract with the Daily Express, as assistant to Percy Sewell who, under the name "The Dragoman", wrote a daily feature called 'The Talk of London'. On Sewell's retirement in 1932, he took over the column that was renamed as 'These Names Make News', and its by-line changed to "William Hickey", after the 18th century diarist and rake.
In the latter part of the 1930s he travelled widely, twice to Spain, to observe the Spanish Civil War, to Germany after the Munich Agreement of 1938, to Rome for the coronation of Pope Pius XII and to New York for the 1939 New York World's Fair.
After his mother died in July 1939, with his share of her money and the help of a substantial mortgage, he bought and renovated Bradwell Lodge, a country house in Bradwell-on-Sea on the Essex coast,. He lived and entertained there until the house was requisitioned by the Royal Air Force in 1940.
In November 1941 he went to America and was in Washington on Monday 8 December, after the attack on Pearl Harbour. And he reported President Roosevelt's speech to Congress announcing America's entry into the war.
A strong Winston Churchill supporter, he became a Member of Parliament in 1942 and he remained in the House until May 1955. He was to return to the House as member for Barking from 1959 to 1974.
Recognised as being openly homosexual, on 16 February 1951 he surprised his friends by announcing his engagement to Ena Mary Binfield (née Lyttelton). The pair were married on 30 June 1951.
In November 1975 he was granted a life peerage and on 21 January 1976 he was entered the House of Lords as Baron Bradwell, of Bradwell juxta Mare in the County of Essex.
He died on 12 August 1976 (aged 71) in Paddington, London,
One of his poems,, in the style of Edith Sitwell, was published in 'Oxford Poetry 1926' and when Sitwell visited Oxford to deliver a lecture, he invited her to have tea with him, and she accepted. After her lecture he found an opportunity to recite one of his own poems, and was rewarded when Sitwell declared him 'the hope of English poetry'. He regarded Sitwell as his mentor.
Later his social contacts led to him getting a permanent contract with the Daily Express, as assistant to Percy Sewell who, under the name "The Dragoman", wrote a daily feature called 'The Talk of London'. On Sewell's retirement in 1932, he took over the column that was renamed as 'These Names Make News', and its by-line changed to "William Hickey", after the 18th century diarist and rake.
In the latter part of the 1930s he travelled widely, twice to Spain, to observe the Spanish Civil War, to Germany after the Munich Agreement of 1938, to Rome for the coronation of Pope Pius XII and to New York for the 1939 New York World's Fair.
After his mother died in July 1939, with his share of her money and the help of a substantial mortgage, he bought and renovated Bradwell Lodge, a country house in Bradwell-on-Sea on the Essex coast,. He lived and entertained there until the house was requisitioned by the Royal Air Force in 1940.
In November 1941 he went to America and was in Washington on Monday 8 December, after the attack on Pearl Harbour. And he reported President Roosevelt's speech to Congress announcing America's entry into the war.
A strong Winston Churchill supporter, he became a Member of Parliament in 1942 and he remained in the House until May 1955. He was to return to the House as member for Barking from 1959 to 1974.
Recognised as being openly homosexual, on 16 February 1951 he surprised his friends by announcing his engagement to Ena Mary Binfield (née Lyttelton). The pair were married on 30 June 1951.
In November 1975 he was granted a life peerage and on 21 January 1976 he was entered the House of Lords as Baron Bradwell, of Bradwell juxta Mare in the County of Essex.
He died on 12 August 1976 (aged 71) in Paddington, London,
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 26, 2022
If one is looking for the detailed story of Guy Burgess' defection to Russia, this is not the book to tell it. As the sub-title states, this is 'A Portrait with background' and Driberg, being a personal friend of the subject does not write a 'warts and all' story. This is merely background to Burgess' life and career and Burgess releases what he wishes and does not tell all the inside story (as came to light subsequently) of his activities. Indeed, reading the book poses the question, 'Well what led to the eventual defection?'
That is not to say that the book isn't interesting, it is and Burgess, in one section of question and answer, is extremely interesting particularly when he speaks of his time as personal assistant to Foreign Office minister Hector McNeil with specific inside stories of how 'the official rather than the minister are dominant' [I can empathise with that view because of my experience in HM Treasury].
An Eton schoolboy, with a short spell at Dartmouth College in between, Cambridge University, where many undergraduates were communist minded, on to the BBC when he enjoyed the company of Winston Churchill and them he spent time in Europe intending to 'set up an underground wireless station in Liechtenstein'. Then came work with the Secret Service but when he found his office 'in a state of upheaval' he was sacked and joined the Foreign Office News Department before McNeil sent for him in 1946.
When his work with McNeil ended he moved to the Far Eastern Department before moving on to the British embassy in Washington where his views, and on occasions his behaviour, was frowned upon. This subsequently led to a return to England and his flight to Russia with Donald Maclean, who he had befriended in America. There is an appendix to the book that sets out the joint Burgess/Maclean statement that laid to rest all the rumours that had abounded about their flight to the east.
But all along there is very little reference, if any, to any underhand activities and passing information to the Russians. In fairness the book was published in the early days of their defections so perhaps not as much was known then as came to light later.
That is not to say that the book isn't interesting, it is and Burgess, in one section of question and answer, is extremely interesting particularly when he speaks of his time as personal assistant to Foreign Office minister Hector McNeil with specific inside stories of how 'the official rather than the minister are dominant' [I can empathise with that view because of my experience in HM Treasury].
An Eton schoolboy, with a short spell at Dartmouth College in between, Cambridge University, where many undergraduates were communist minded, on to the BBC when he enjoyed the company of Winston Churchill and them he spent time in Europe intending to 'set up an underground wireless station in Liechtenstein'. Then came work with the Secret Service but when he found his office 'in a state of upheaval' he was sacked and joined the Foreign Office News Department before McNeil sent for him in 1946.
When his work with McNeil ended he moved to the Far Eastern Department before moving on to the British embassy in Washington where his views, and on occasions his behaviour, was frowned upon. This subsequently led to a return to England and his flight to Russia with Donald Maclean, who he had befriended in America. There is an appendix to the book that sets out the joint Burgess/Maclean statement that laid to rest all the rumours that had abounded about their flight to the east.
But all along there is very little reference, if any, to any underhand activities and passing information to the Russians. In fairness the book was published in the early days of their defections so perhaps not as much was known then as came to light later.
July 22, 2019
Part biography, part apology. The conversation between Burgess and Driberg, held in Moscow and reported as dialogue, is the most interesting part of this short book, but seeing the Second World War through the eyes of a British Socialist was intriguing too.
June 21, 2024
Bizarre book that is in complete denial about Burgess's role as a Soviet spy. Either this makes the author an accomplice, or a less-accomplished journalist than he is given credit for.
It is interesting to read from a different perspective of life as a member of the establishment, but a curiosity only.
It is interesting to read from a different perspective of life as a member of the establishment, but a curiosity only.
October 19, 2021
Follows Burgess down the path to his betrayal of his country to the Russians
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews