Ким Филби - супершпион КГБ

My dear Phillip,

I am writing in haste and discombobulation. We have had our distinguished Catholic friend [Greene] on and off our hands for the past few days; and what with the usual telephonic and transport foul-ups we are a bit on edge! I have told him nothing about the future, and he has gladly promised to repulse any journalists who may ask him about me.

The dedication you ask me about runs, ‘For Kim and Rufina with affectionate greetings from Graham and Yvonne, Sept 9, 1871. His Yvonne is as fair as yours is dark, so we have to call them blond Y. and brunette Y. to distinguish who we are talking about. One more damned complication in an already confused life.

We loved the family pix. [I had sent him photographs of a dinner party with his son John and John’s wife Jo.] John looks suspiciously bonhomous as if he had been at the soda water. We were also touched by the thank-you card from the brunette Y. Although registered it took sixteen days from post office to post office… Josephine [his daughter] sent me a shirt last summer or autumn and it still has not arrived. But it was not registered.

Congratulations on placing your material so soon. I have not tried the great dish yet [a book I had given him about the Profumo affair] — too many noises off-stage. And you will have gathered from my awful typing that I am all of a dither. So now to a simple supper and early to bed.

Kindest regards to you all,

Kim.

PHILBY

The Life and Views of the K.G.B.Masterspy

1988 by Phillip Knightley.