My Father The Spy (Paperback) | Released: 02 Dec 2012

This is the true story of Bill Bristow, the son of a spy, and his father Desmond Bristow. It reveals how mysterious it is having a father whose career could not be talked about and whose work during the war was never fully appreciated by the family. Bill's Godfather Tommy Harris, (who was the case officer of Garbo, noted for his deception work against the Germans during and following D-Day), Kim Philby, Guy Burgess and Anthony Blunt are all featured in the book as are MI6's activities after the war. Bill notes some very personal feelings of his own and his father's throughout the book. Bill can remember conversations about traitors who had escaped to Russia to work with the KGB; principally amongst them Kim Philby who had been a good friend of Bill's father. Suspicion also fell on Bill's father and, until Peter Wright had cleared his name, there was always a dim cloud of smoke there; not always from within MI6 but from friends and family. At times it seemed thrilling, yet in the book Bill reveals how disruptive this relationship was for a son. The book also reveals how open the relationship was with his father, especially when writing together. Bill realises now how fortunate he was in this respect, which is why this book contains some of the truths which evaded the pages of "A Game of Moles - The Deceptions of an MI6 Officer."
About the Author: Bill first started to enjoy writing when he received an 18 out of 20 score for a 3 page story he wrote when he was 11 years old. Auntie Blodwyn with her red and grey horn rimmed glasses driving like a loon around the Essex country lanes in her 1964 powder blue and black mini. She was a real person, not his auntie by birth, just a great friend of his mother. Auntie Blodwyn was an artist who painted nudes and horses. What a truly extrovert character to have had in one's young life! He started writing poetry when he was 19, something he remembers as an exploration into emotions and thoughts too complex to express in any other way. Always writing short stories, none published, and mostly thrown away. His interests are reading, film, writing, photography, food, art and to a certain extent wine. He wrote some articles in his early career life in London on and about the Commodity Exchange and the City of London. Subsequently, after his move to Los Angeles to study film, he took up writing articles for travel magazines and was the travel editor for Venice Magazine back in the 80's. He directed a successful documentary on a homeless man in L.A. and filmed several behind the scenes videos for Rutger Hauer and some film companies. Also, back in the 80s as the co writer two screenplays with the talented web site designer and creative Anton Klavs, he learnt how hard it is to structure the written word in screenplay form. It is nothing like a book, and to quote Bill: "When writing a screenplay what you do not write is as important as the words you do write. It is all to do with the empty space between one word and the next, and what can happen in the gaps." As a locations manager and producer for still photography advertising campaigns shot in various parts of the world, Bill gained a wide experience of different cultures, which he hopes to be able to tap into on some up and coming short stories he is going to write. A certain success as an author came when he had the opportunity to write with his father who had been a spy and spy master during World War 2 on until the mid 1950's. His father's boss and friend in MI6 had been the notorious double agent Kim Philby. The book 'A Game of Moles' has been published as a hard back, a paper back and translated into Spanish. Many of the more harrowing moments of his work and experiencers were left out for certain reasons.