KGB Guide To London

‘WHEN you travel abroad, what do you take with you (apart of course for enough tinned food to last the duration of your holiday)?

”We cannot be too careful; meet me in the Millennium Dome in ten minutes…”

A Rough Guide? Fodor’s? Lonely Planet? Or do you prefer the KGB’s guide to the world’s capital cities?

The London version, which was published yesterday, includes such important advice as always carry smart luggage with you when checking into hotels, avoid clandestine meetings in Central London and make sure your AA membership is up to date.

Not much about what the new bar du jour is in Shoreditch, but then this guide was published in the 1930s.

The Times says it was seized by the Germans from a Soviet agent captured in Paris during World War II and fell into MI6’s hands after the war.

Other tips include the advice that a smart address in South Kensington is “definitely an asset” as the area has a good reputation with the police and the news that there were 34 times as many police in Whitehall as in Hampstead.

“There are no reasons why one should not use hotels in this area,” the handbook says, “but it is remarkable how persistently this area is preferred for rendezvous by people who should know better.”

Like Conservative MPs and, er, Cambridge-educated Soviet spies…’

Posted: 1st, March 2005 | In: Uncategorized Comment | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink