Malcolm Turnbull (1) (1954–)

Obviously the reason that I re-read this book in 2015 is because its author had just become the Prime Minister of Australia. I bought and first read it over 25 years previously, but it was still sitting on my shelf, together with Spycatcher itself.

I remember enjoying it at the time, and I thought it well worth looking at again, to get a better sense of Turnbull’s way of thinking.

Set in 1987, it tells the tale of how Malcolm Turnbull (with the able help of his wife Lucy) represented Peter Wright, once an agent of the British Secret Service.

Retired and living on a pittance in Tasmania, Wright had written a memoir of his career, revealing many embarrassing matters including the accusation that Sir Roger Hollis, one time head of MI5, had himself been a Russian mole. The British Government (then headed by Margaret Thatcher) was furiously trying to supress its publication on the grounds of national security. The reason for the British to act this way may seem obvious but in fact Wright had been very careful in Spycatcher not to reveal any currently secret matters, or matters which could compromise current secret operations. He had even offered to let the British ‘blue-pencil’ (edit) his book, but that offer had been rebuffed and the Thatcher Government was trying to claim that the mere existence of a book written by an ex-employee of the secret services was enough to cause Britain significant damage.

Malcolm Turnbull took on the case when most other lawyers were advising Heinemann, the publishers, that it was hopeless.

The Spycatcher Trial is Turnbull’s own account of the ultimately successful proceedings which allowed Wright to publish his memoir, and it makes engrossing reading. There’s some interesting autobiographical information and then we move to the case itself. Naturally, Turnbull shows himself in a very good light, and of course one has to take that with several grains of salt. Nevertheless, it’s impossible to doubt that Turnbull has a very sharp mind and a very determined approach to advocacy.

Much of the entertainment of the book comes from excerpts of the verbatim transcript of the trial, as Turnbull relentlessly pursues Sir Robert Armstrong, the British Cabinet Secretary, and forensically exposes the contradictions and absurdities of the government’s case. Turnbull made it clear that, although Armstrong strongly denied it, the British Government had tacitly allowed the publication of some other books about the Secret Service, books which tended to show the government in a better light.… (més)