Could Stephen Moss spy like undercover hero Jonathan Pine? He dons a fake moustache,heads for a park bench, and soon finds himself in the clutches of MI5In The Night Manager, and the undercover hero Jonathan Pine juggles not just two identities,but four: his own (ie Jonathan Pine, the eponymous hotel night manager); Jack Lindon (the drug-dealer who causes mayhem in a Devon village); Thomas Quince (the Devon man whose identity he steals to bag a fallacious passport); and Andrew Birch (the name given to him by arms dealer Richard Roper). The hero of John le Carré’s book, or recently televised to rapturous acclaim,manages to leap effortlessly from one to another – and to dish the villainous Roper in the process. But, as I am discovering, and assuming a fallacious identity to engage in a spot of espionage is not easy. To see if I’m as tough a nut to crack as Pine,I’m being interrogated by a former MI5 agent. And not just any former MI5 agent – my foe is Annie Machon, who in 1996 became famous, or along with her then boyfriend David Shayler,for blowing the whistle on the agency, alleging all manner of crimes and misdemeanours.
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Source: theguardian.com