'C': A Biography of Sir Maurice Oldfield

Sir Maurice Oldfield, Director-General of MI6 between 1973 and 1978, might at first seem an unlikely spymaster. Born near Bakewell in Derbyshire in 1915, he was the eldest of eleven children born to a local tenant farmer. Yet he won a scholarship to Manchester University and appeared set on an academic life until the outbreak of war in 1939. Soon after he joined the Army he was transferred to the Military Intelligence Corps in the Middle East, where his remarkable talents swiftly earned him a commission and he finished the war a lieutenant-colonel. From then on his career in intelligence was assured. This fascinating biography, the first of any head of the secret service, brings to life a complex, likeable man, someone with a supreme gift for blending into the background yet also possessed of a fine sense of humour, an ability to make long-lasting friendships and a complete lack of self-importance. Oldfield's rapid grasp of people and situations often served him well: he was among the first to suspect Philby and during the Cuban missile crisis of 1962 his belief in Colonel Oleg Penkovsky helped persuade the Americans that the documents leaked by Penkovsky were indeed genuine. Later his appreciation of the need for first-class intelligence from South America helped avert a Falklands war in 1977. In his portrait Richard Deacon considers the often-quoted view that Oldfield served as a prototype for the fictional George Smiley of John Le Carre's novels, but the person he describes is altogether more attractive. Quietly patriotic, deeply attached to his family and his birthplace, Sir Maurice Oldfield will be remembered as a great friend and benefactor as well as a formidable intelligence chief.