The self-image of the Britisher is of a genial, bluff fellow who plays with a straight bat and would never consign his opponent to a sticky wicket (the cricketing similes abound). It goes on through Sir Francis Walsingham and up to the present day, via the X-X System of the Second World War.Īs for the British – well, our deception is not only of foreigners but also of ourselves. It has been so since Gideon carried out his night raid against the Midianites, the first special forces attack in history. The first is wound up in the fact that people are perennially intrigued by the seemingly unpleasant art of deception. Why, throughout the world, are so many people fascinated by the fiction and reality of espionage? And why of all people are the British so good at both? There are two puzzles that for many years have provoked speculation.
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