Agent ‘Shag’ Among Secrets Spilled in Spy Chief’s Diary

The inside story on the discovery of the “Cambridge Five” spy ring, radio-controlled carrier pigeons and a double-agent codenamed “Shag” are among secrets disclosed in the newly released diaries of a Cold War British spymaster.

Guy Liddell was deputy director-general of MI5, the internal security service, from 1945 until 1953, keeping a daily diary that remained secret until its publication today by the National Archives in London. It shows how he discussed the hunt for Soviet moles inside the British establishment with his friends Anthony Blunt and Kim Philby, both later unmasked as members of a group of communist spies recruited at Cambridge University in the 1930s.