Successful spymaster came in from the cold

and electronic eavesdroppers at GCHQ. But in 1923 it numbered just a few hundred as punishing budget cuts tried to stem the effect of an economically disastrous First World War.

Filling the void was left to the likes of industrialist Sir George Makgill who, full of angst about the growing Soviet influence on the workforce, set up a private agency. Knight, a member of the fervently anti-communist British Empire Union, had made a favourable impression.

His flaws remained hidden. His marriages remained unconsummated, with the parents of his first wife blaming him for her suicide, and he was sacked from his first post-war civilian job with the Ministry of Shipping after less than a year.

Before long Knight was running a network of hundreds. His secret weapon was the way he spoke, a skill that had made him so successful in taming animals. By 1917 he shared his London flat with mice, a bushbaby, parrot, several grass snakes and even a bear called Bessie. Once given his own section (M) within MI5, his initiatives, such as recruiting women and inserting them into the role of conveniently placed secretaries, would lead to several coups.

He was the first to suspect the Soviet infiltration of the Secret Service. His top agent Olga Gray infiltrated the Communist Party of Great Britain and discovered a plot to pass secret naval plans of anti-submarine bombs to the Soviets, while another infiltrated a plot involving a US cipher clerk in London to pass on details to the Nazis of secret correspondence between Churchill (still First Lord of the Admiralty) and President Roosevelt.

One of his agents at M section was none other than David Cornwell, better known as John le Carré. The author used Knight as the inspiration for his character Jack Brotherhood in A Perfect Spy.

Hemming pours water over claims Knight was a closet homosexual, a claim repeated countless times since it was first made by an ex-lover in the 1980s, and delivers a read worthy of Le Carré himself. To order any of the books featured, post free (UK only), please phone The Express Bookshop on You may also send a cheque made payable to or postal order to: or you can order online at www.expressbookshop.com