Writers in British Intelligence: The Secret State and the Public Sphere

情报工作的特点是保密，因此通常被认为是与公共领域分离的。从007的《杀人执照》开始，流行的间谍形象往往强化了这种分离，把情报描绘成法律之外的东西，不受公众监督。正如这个项目将展示的那样，情况远非如此。尽管有官方保密的外衣，但英国情报部门一直都必须注意政治舆论，作家们经常发现自己是秘密国家和人民之间的中间人。这项研究的目的是探索这种相互作用，特别关注五位作家。我们的工作将分为四个方面：1)在20世纪，政府普遍认为建立国家“秘密警察”的想法不像英国人。小说家威廉·勒·奎克斯（William Le Queux）带头发起了一场大规模的“公民间谍”运动，改变了这种状况。我们将第一次详细研究Le queue的活动以及它在官员中引起的反应。在这样做的过程中，我们会问：一部虚构的作品如何能够获得足够的政治动力，迫使英国建立第一个国家情报机构？Dennis Wheatley和John Masterman在二战中参与情报工作是众所周知的。然而，他们作为小说家的想象力是如何被策略性地运用的，如何“操纵”不利的场景，以及如何向阿布韦尔出售复杂的虚构情报，却从未被仔细分析过。二战结束25年后，两位作家通过发表他们的故事打破了官方的沉默：这些揭露对英国情报机构公众声誉的影响也从未得到适当的评估。在这样做的过程中，我们的目标是对这些作家在英国情报史上所扮演的复杂角色有一个新的认识。3) 1963年，一名军情六处的在职官员从无名小卒变成了历史上最成功的间谍作家。他对情报“马戏团”的严厉描述塑造了整整一代人对情报机构的普遍印象。20世纪60年代早期是英国情报政治极度动荡的时期：我们将第一次在这种狂热的媒体氛围中评估勒·卡罗莱的“新现实主义”的影响。作为可以说是所有间谍作家中最具影响力的介入，它揭示了在这个曝光时代，英国情报机构与公共领域之间不断变化的关系。1992年，斯特拉·雷明顿作为第一个被公开承认的军情五处局长，成为英国情报部门“开放”的新面孔。她的所有作品，无论是虚构的还是非虚构的，都是关于为这些机构争取一个新鲜、民主的形象。然而，几乎所有这些都没有受到认真的审查。我们将会看到，在她任职期间，雷明顿监督了情报收集方法的重大变革，在许多方面威胁到她声称要捍卫的民主权利和自由。在这一点上，她的写作几乎是完全沉默的。因此，我们会问，雷明顿的项目最终是否更多的是隐藏而不是公开，掩盖了90年代及以后情报工作的真实演变。这个项目的一个主要目的是吸引学术和非学术读者，鼓励进一步探讨作家在智力中的作用。为了促进文学和智力研究之间的跨学科对话，我们的课程包括一个研讨会，来自每个学科的主要学者将聚集在一起，从而产生一个开创性的文集。我们的公众参与策略包括举办大型作者活动，以及在b谷歌艺术文化平台举办创新的在线展览。我们的博客“情报作家”将为情报专家、评论家和公众之间的持续辩论和对话提供空间。

Intelligence work is characterised by secrecy and, as such, is often assumed to be detached from the public sphere. Popular images of the spy from 007's 'license to kill' onwards tend to reinforce this separation, portraying intelligence as something outside the law, exempt from public oversight. As this project will show, this is far from being the case. Despite the cloak of official secrecy, British intelligence has always had to be mindful of political opinion, and writers have often found themselves acting as intermediaries between the secret state and the people. The aim of this research is to explore this interaction, looking at five writers in particular. Our work will be divided into four strands:1) In the 1900s the idea of having a state 'secret police' was widely regarded as un-British by government. It took a mass campaign of 'citizen spies' spearheaded by the novelist William Le Queux to change this posture. For the first time, we will examine Le Queux's campaign and the responses it elicited from officials in detail. In so doing we will ask: how could a work of fiction achieve sufficient political momentum to force the establishment of Britain's first state intelligence service?2) Dennis Wheatley's and John Masterman's involvement with intelligence in WW2 is well known. However, the way their imaginative skills as novelists were used strategically, to 'game' adverse scenarios and to sell complex fictional intelligence to the Abwehr, has never been closely analysed. 25 years after the end of the war, both writers broke official silence by publishing their stories: the effect of these revelations on the public reputation of British intelligence has also, never been properly assessed. In doing so, we aim to develop a new understanding of the complex role these writers played in the history of British intelligence.3) In 1963, a serving MI6 officer emerged from nowhere to become the most successful spy writer in history. His scathing account of the intelligence 'circus' would shape the popular image of the agencies for a generation. The early 1960s were an intensely turbulent period for the politics of intelligence in Britain: for the first time, we will assess the impact of Le Carré's 'New Realism' within this febrile media climate. As arguably the most influential intervention made by any spy writer, what does it reveal about the changing relationship between British intelligence and the public sphere in this era of exposure?4) In 1992, as the first publicly acknowledged Director of MI5, Stella Rimington became the new face of 'openness' in British intelligence. All of her writing, both fictional and non-fictional, is concerned with negotiating a fresh, democratic image for the agencies. Almost none of it, however, has met with serious scrutiny. As we will show, during her tenure Rimington oversaw a major revolution in intelligence gathering methods, in many ways threatening the democratic rights and freedoms she claimed to defend. On this, her writing is almost completely silent. As such, we will ask whether Rimington's project is ultimately more about concealment than openness, obscuring the real evolution of intelligence work in the 90s and beyond.A key aim of this project is to engage both academic and non-academic audiences, encouraging further enquiry into the role of writers in intelligence. To stimulate cross-disciplinary dialogue between Literary and Intelligence studies, our programme includes a symposium in which leading scholars from each discipline will be brought together, leading to a ground-breaking collection of essays. Our public engagement strategy includes a major author event, as well as an innovative online exhibition on the Google Arts & Culture Platform. Our blog 'Writers in Intelligence' will provide a space for ongoing debate and dialogue between intelligence specialists, critics and members of the public.