Alfred Searls

For those interested in history and espionage, Antonia Senior’s highly compelling new book, Stalin’s Apostles, is a fascinating, authoritative and gripping account of the most extraordinary spy ring in history: the Cambridge Five. In the shadow of the Great Depression in the 1930s, Cambridge University was a hotbed of Marxist discontent.

By Alfred D Searls The train slows as it begins its approach to the station, the furthest outpost of the centre of the city. Within the expensive silence of the first-class carriage he senses the familiar change in tempo and lifts his eyes from the well-chosen Christmas present, a hardback history of Soviet canine cosmonauts. Through the frosted glass doors that divide the travelling classes he notes the vague human outlines in standard class in which, as ever, it’s standing room only.

There’s an episode of the 90s hit comedy Father Ted where the lads on Craggy Island are visited by Father Damian Lennon, a young Dublin priest and pound-shop Liam Gallagher, who you know is rebellious because he smokes, snarls and, when shouted for, won’t come in to eat his dinner. When Damo asks the young, cognitively challenged Father Dougal “which one do you prefer, Oasis or Blur?”, he’s left both incredulous and outraged at Dougal’s answer.