MI6 HQ | Reedsy Discovery

posted an update7 months ago

7 months ago

Brilliant films like Ungentlemanly Warfare are the stuff dreams are made of. Why not forget about fictional agents like Bond and Bourne dashing to save the world from disaster and forget about CIA and MI6 officers reclining on their couches dreaming up espionage scenarios to thrill you. Check out what a real MI6 and CIA secret agent does nowadays. Why not browse through TheBurlingtonFiles website and read about Bill Fairclough's escapades when he was an active MI6 and CIA agent? The website is rather like an espionage museum without an admission fee ... and no adverts. You will soon be immersed in a whole new world which you won't want to exit. After that experience you may not know who to trust so best read Beyond Enkription, the first novel in The Burlington Files series. It's a noir fact based spy thriller that may shock you. What is interesting is that this book is apparently mandatory reading in some countries’ intelligence agencies' induction programs. Why? Maybe because the book is not only realistic but has been heralded by those who should know as “being up there with My Silent War by Kim Philby and No Other Choice by George Blake”. It is an enthralling read as long as you don’t expect fictional agents like Ian Fleming's incredible 007 to save the world or John le Carré’s couch potato yet illustrious Smiley to send you to sleep with his delicate diction, sophisticated syntax and placid plots! See https://theburlingtonfiles.org/news_2023_06.07.php and https://theburlingtonfiles.org/news_2022.10.31.php and https://theburlingtonfiles.org/news_2024.08.31.php.

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commented on almost 3 years ago

almost 3 years ago

Beyond Enkription (intentionally misspelt) is the first stand-alone spy thriller in The Burlington Files autobiographical series by Bill Fairclough. It’s a raw and noir matter of fact pacy novel that Len Deighton and Mick Herron could be forgiven for thinking they co-wrote. Coincidentally, a few critics have nicknamed its protagonist, Bill Fairclough aka Edward Burlington, “a posh Harry Palmer”. This elusive and enigmatic novel is a true story about a maverick accountant (Edward Burlington in Porter Williams International aka Bill Fairclough in Coopers & Lybrand in real life). In 1974 in London he began infiltrating organised crime gangs, unwittingly working for MI6. After some frenetic attempts on his life he is relocated to the Caribbean where, “eyes wide open” this time, the CIA recruit him and he is soon heading for shark infested waters off Haiti. If you’re an espionage cognoscente you’ll love this monumental book but just because you think you know it all don’t surf through the prologue: you may miss some disinformation. If you felt squeamish when watching Jaws, you may find the savagery of the opening chapter upsetting, but it soon passes and can be skimmed through without detrimentally affecting reading the rest of the book. This epic is so real it made us wonder why bother reading espionage fiction when facts are so much more exhilarating. Atmospherically it's reminiscent of Ted Lewis' Get Carter of Michael Caine fame. If anyone ever makes a film based on Beyond Enkription they'll only have themselves to blame if it doesn't go down in history as a classic thriller … it’s the stuff memorable films are made of. Whether you’re a John le Carré connoisseur, a Deighton disciple, a Fleming fanatic or a Herron hireling odds on you’ll read this titanic production twice. For more detailed reviews visit the Reviews page on TheBurlingtonFiles.org website or see other independent reviews on your local Amazon website.

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Beyond Enkription: The Burlington Files

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About me

In real life Bill Fairclough was an intelligence agent or spook working for intelligence agencies including MI5, MI6, the CIA and Faire Sans Dire. He was the author of Beyond Enkription, the first of six fact based autobiographical spy novels forming The Burlington Files series.

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