Unmasked as a Soviet spy in 1961, Blake was sentenced to 42 years in London's Wormwood Scrubs prison. He spent the rest of his life in the Soviet Union and then Russia, where he was feted as a hero. He escaped from the Netherlands in World War Two after joining the Dutch resistance as a courier and reached Britain in January 1943. Blake was eventually exposed by a Polish defector and brought home to Britain, where he was sentenced and jailed. He reminisced about drinking martinis, the preferred cocktail of fictitious British spy James Bond, with Philby but said he was closer in spirit to Maclean.

Source: bd News24 December 26, 2020 12:00 UTC