What do you think?
Rate this book
Inside story: A Documentary of the Pursuit of Power
'Inside Story' is a unique series of exposures and disclosures about what goes on behind the scenes in Whitehall and Westminster by a man uniquely qualified to make them.
For more than thirty years, Chapman Pincher has been close confidant of statesmen, senior civil servants, forces chiefs, ambassadors and officers of the secret intelligence and security services. This has given him unprecedented insight into the activities of the people who govern our lives and of the machinery they manipulate.
During his stormy career - no other writer has been the subject of so much discussion in the Commons - he acquired an unparalleled reputation for disclosing events and developments which Whitehall, Westminster, or both, were hoping to hide. So great was his success as an investigative journalist that in 1967 Granada instituted a special award for him - Reporter of the Decade. Ten years later he was still at the centre of Parliamentary storms over the alleged 'bugging' of Sir Harold Wilson.
Scourge of ministers and Whitehall mandarins alike, he has nevertheless retained the friendship and confidence of most of them. 'Inside Story', which is very much an 'I was there ...' book, is peopled not only by household names like Harold Macmillan, George Brown, Beaverbrook, Harold Wilson, Lady Falkender and Enoch Powell, but by spies and defectors like Philby, Burgess and Maclean, Vassall, Penkovsky and Lyalin.
Chapman Pincher provides new facts about affairs of consuming interest, such as the resignation of Harold Wilson, the mystery of frogman Crabb, the political sex scandals and the operation of intelligence services against the Labour Party. For the first time, he explains why Wilson warned the electorate that 'cohorts of distinguished journalists' were looking for information with which to smear him and why he pursued the damaging D Notice affair. He throws new light on telephone tapping, 'bugging' and the operations in Britain of the CIA and the KGB, including his own relationship with with one of the KGB's dangerous agents. He also lifts the curtain on some of the occasions when he was helped in combatting the KGB through his relations with MI5 and MI6.
Though 'Inside Story' contains some fascinating reminiscences about Lord Beaverbrook - some of them hilarious - it is definitely not a book about the struggle for circulaton in Fleet Street, it is about the struggle for power at the hub of the nation - the Whitehall-Westminster complex, with particular emphasis on its secret departments.
For more than thirty years, Chapman Pincher has been close confidant of statesmen, senior civil servants, forces chiefs, ambassadors and officers of the secret intelligence and security services. This has given him unprecedented insight into the activities of the people who govern our lives and of the machinery they manipulate.
During his stormy career - no other writer has been the subject of so much discussion in the Commons - he acquired an unparalleled reputation for disclosing events and developments which Whitehall, Westminster, or both, were hoping to hide. So great was his success as an investigative journalist that in 1967 Granada instituted a special award for him - Reporter of the Decade. Ten years later he was still at the centre of Parliamentary storms over the alleged 'bugging' of Sir Harold Wilson.
Scourge of ministers and Whitehall mandarins alike, he has nevertheless retained the friendship and confidence of most of them. 'Inside Story', which is very much an 'I was there ...' book, is peopled not only by household names like Harold Macmillan, George Brown, Beaverbrook, Harold Wilson, Lady Falkender and Enoch Powell, but by spies and defectors like Philby, Burgess and Maclean, Vassall, Penkovsky and Lyalin.
Chapman Pincher provides new facts about affairs of consuming interest, such as the resignation of Harold Wilson, the mystery of frogman Crabb, the political sex scandals and the operation of intelligence services against the Labour Party. For the first time, he explains why Wilson warned the electorate that 'cohorts of distinguished journalists' were looking for information with which to smear him and why he pursued the damaging D Notice affair. He throws new light on telephone tapping, 'bugging' and the operations in Britain of the CIA and the KGB, including his own relationship with with one of the KGB's dangerous agents. He also lifts the curtain on some of the occasions when he was helped in combatting the KGB through his relations with MI5 and MI6.
Though 'Inside Story' contains some fascinating reminiscences about Lord Beaverbrook - some of them hilarious - it is definitely not a book about the struggle for circulaton in Fleet Street, it is about the struggle for power at the hub of the nation - the Whitehall-Westminster complex, with particular emphasis on its secret departments.
- GenresPolitics
400 pages, Hardcover
First published October 9, 1978
21 people want to read
About the author
Chapman Pincher
37 books7 followersHarry 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.
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.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
June 18, 2013
Chapman Pincher was one of the best investigative journalists, so much so that when I was in Whitehall we were forbidden to speak to him and I was there when the D Notice affair that he discusses in great detail was enacted. These defence notices were intended for the editor of newspapers only but Pincher feels that they did not achieve their purpose and he had a liberal interpretation of what did and did not constitute breaking the so-called rules.
His book is an excellent review of politics and power in government through the 1960s and 1970s. He covers a wide variety of subjects from lunching with George Brown, Number 10 being bugged, spies in the Foreign Office, the KGB and the trade unions, interestingly, deception by Whitehall, which he felt was employed all too often, the politics of Enoch Powell and Lady Falkender, Harold Wilson's private secretary's influence on the then Prime Minister, among a whole host of other interesting subjects.
Some of the more reportable incidents have been portrayed in the 'Yes, Minister' and 'Yes. Prime Minister' programmes ... and I must confess to having partaken in some of the real-life activities that have been portrayed there myself such as parliamentary private secretaries being introduced into government departments. Talk about anathema to the civil servants ... wow!
The Profumo affair gets a brief airing as do the defections of Burgess, Maclean and Philby. Commander Crabb and his diving exploits around a Soviet ship is also covered along with many other topical issues of the times about which he is writing. They all make for compulsive, and thought-provoking, reading.
His book is an excellent review of politics and power in government through the 1960s and 1970s. He covers a wide variety of subjects from lunching with George Brown, Number 10 being bugged, spies in the Foreign Office, the KGB and the trade unions, interestingly, deception by Whitehall, which he felt was employed all too often, the politics of Enoch Powell and Lady Falkender, Harold Wilson's private secretary's influence on the then Prime Minister, among a whole host of other interesting subjects.
Some of the more reportable incidents have been portrayed in the 'Yes, Minister' and 'Yes. Prime Minister' programmes ... and I must confess to having partaken in some of the real-life activities that have been portrayed there myself such as parliamentary private secretaries being introduced into government departments. Talk about anathema to the civil servants ... wow!
The Profumo affair gets a brief airing as do the defections of Burgess, Maclean and Philby. Commander Crabb and his diving exploits around a Soviet ship is also covered along with many other topical issues of the times about which he is writing. They all make for compulsive, and thought-provoking, reading.
Displaying 1 of 1 review