The sad news of Len Deighton's passing coincided with my learning that there was an exhibition at the Manchester branch of the Imperial War Museum, and so I decided to take a look. The museum is located in Salford, a short walk from the Lowry and the BBC (where University Challenge is filmed, among other shows, so a place of fond memories!) but it's a very, very long time since I last went there with my children.
The main exhibition is very good and a special treat was listening to a chap called Ray giving a fascinating talk about a friend of his, Tom Boardman, who was a prisoner of the Japanese during the war, but managed to make a ukulele with which he entertained fellow prisoners, and which is now on display. There are plenty of reminders about the long-lasting nature of the devastation caused by war, which felt very pertinent in current circumstances, as it did a couple of days later when talking to two friends who come from Iran.
The Spies, Lies and Deception exhibition was very good, and even though I've done a lot of reading about spying over the years, I still learned some new things, for example about Agent Zigzag. I went to a spying museum in Washington DC a few years ago, and that was also good, but very different. Here the focus was on the British experience.
It was fascinating, for instance, to see and hear Kim Philby being interviewed on television, and lying through his teeth in a charming way. And to see the pleasant but modest bungalow owned by the Krogers and learn where they hid their spying paraphenalia was quite memorable. One thing I did not know was that Kroger's cover was as a dealer in antiquarian books. Now that has given me an idea for a story...
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