John Alexander Symonds - The Romeo Spy

I will pass your advice onto Nick, and I expect he...

2009-07-08T17:21:13.465-07:00

I will pass your advice onto Nick, and I expect he will advise all his agents to wear rustic clothing and adopt bumpkin accents, and if pulled in seriously pronounce their piece of peasant wisdom "oo aah the morning be wiser than the evening, oo aah that it be," tapping their nose with their fingers whilst speaking the key words. And by the way your spelling is "absolutely atroshus".

as a russian mother tongue speaker I can tell that...

2009-07-06T14:09:39.466-07:00

as a russian mother tongue speaker I can tell that the Russian rendition of this phrase is *absolutely* grammatically and photetically and culturally incorrect. Maybe you wanted to say "утро вечера мудренее" ???

You are quite right and they are now corrected. Th...

2009-07-06T10:19:52.853-07:00

You are quite right and they are now corrected. Thank you!

I was never allowed to speak Russian or Bulgarian, although I applied to attend the Russian and Bulgarian primer courses for foreign students attending Moscow and Sofia Universities. I was not allowed to learn languages for "operational" reasons, the idea being whilst in some foreign country as an English travelling salesman, or whatever, it was not a good idea to possibly lapse into Russian or Bulgarian either in drink or under interrogation. Therefore, I learnt the magic phrase parrot-wise and phonetically as follows in Russian: OTVET NA VSE(c)H VOPROSA(c)H BUDET ZAVTRA and in Bulgarian: NA VSICHKI BASHI VAPROSI SHTE BADE OTGOVORENO UTRE SUTRIN

The KGB were always anxious to preserve 'plausible deniability', and therefore I could not be linked with them in the event of any sort of disaster.

words are in Ukrainian language, not Russian.

2009-07-06T06:59:07.499-07:00

words are in Ukrainian language, not Russian.

There was a great little story about John Symonds ...

2009-06-28T05:44:55.592-07:00

There was a great little story about John Symonds in the Hackney Gazette a few years ago.

It seems regulars in his local pub had followed one of the news stories about him, and in the words of the landlady - were not very bothered about it all, but were a little shocked to know he had been in the police!