Maggie's Farm

Interested in real unadulterated intelligence, encryption, espionage and ungentlemanly warfare? Do read the epic fact based spy thriller, Bill Fairclough's Beyond Enkription, the first stand-alone novel of six in TheBurlingtonFiles series. He was one of Pemberton’s People in MI6.

Beyond Enkription follows the real life of a real spy, Bill Fairclough (MI6 codename JJ) aka Edward Burlington who worked for British Intelligence, the CIA et al. It’s the stuff memorable spy films are made of, unadulterated, realistic yet punchy, pacy and provocative; a super read as long as you don’t expect John le Carré’s delicate diction, sophisticated syntax and placid plots.

For the synopsis of Beyond Enkription see TheBurlingtonFiles website. This thriller is like nothing we have ever come across before. Indeed, we wonder what The Burlington Files would have been like if David Cornwell aka John le Carré had collaborated with Bill Fairclough. They did consider it and even though they didn’t collaborate, Beyond Enkription is still described as ”up there with My Silent War by Kim Philby and No Other Choice by George Blake”. Why? The novel explores the exploitation of the ignorance and naivety of agents to the same extent as MI6 does in real life.

As for Bill Fairclough, he has even been described as a real life posh Harry Palmer; there are many intriguing bios of him on the web. As for Beyond Enkription, it’s a must read for espionage cognoscenti. To relish in this totally different fact based espionage thriller best do some research first. Try reading three brief news articles published on TheBurlingtonFiles website. One is about Bill Fairclough (August 2023), characters' identities (September 2021) and Pemberton's People (October 2022). What is amazing is that these articles were only published many years after Beyond Enkription itself was. You’ll soon be immersed in a whole new world! No wonder it's mandatory reading on some countries’ intelligence induction programs.

As for TheBurlingtonFiles website, it is like a living espionage museum and as breathtaking as a compelling thriller in its own right.