Pitville in Cheltenham looking good this autumn morning.

It looks like the Cheltenham skyline is changing for ever!

With its realistic portrayal of spycraft and encapsulation of the spirit of 1970s Britain, The Sandbaggers might just be the best ever TV series about espionage. The Sandbaggers: the greatest spy show ever? | Dan Lomas (Dr. Dan Lomas) engelsbergideas.com/notebook/the-s…

What happened at Bletchley Parks when clever people were asked to do uncongenial tasks? You can possibly guess! See siginthistorian.blogspot.com

We were invaded by dragons last night - well, a lesser spotted newt either managed to get 200 yards from the nearest stream or was brought along from somewhere to expire in our garage. I've never seen one before.

A new post on siginthistorian.blogspot.com explores Collection Management and ponders the unseen functions that Sigint needs to succeed. It also says just what job the Princess of Wales's grandmother and great-aunt were doing at Bletchley Park.

Thanks, Nick. Unfortunately as we only get post once a week from late-November to January I probably won't see it in printed form until next weekend.

A new post on siginthistorian.blogspot.com looks at how activity by the Admiralty between 1900 and 1914 prepared the ground for Room 40, even if they didn't create a Sigint organisation before the war.

Some first thoughts on what newly released MI5 files on John Cairncross tell us about his time as a Soviet agent at Bletchley Park available at siginthistorian.blogspot.com. Some new detail, but there's nothing particularly spectacular.

The lives traitors live(d)! Post-confession Anthony Blunt's drinks bill was £100 a month in 1965 and he claims to have lived for a day on gin: when gin was £1/10/- (£1.50) a bottle.

This is a fascinating thread and illustrates why security plays a large part in the details of the UKUSA Agreement. Recipients have to give assurance before they receive classified material that they will protect it to the originator's satisfaction, but these waters can run deep.

Austerity was really hard in 1949: but there was a welcome mitigation for staff at GCHQ. See siginthistorian.blogspot.com for what happened.

A really interesting edition of Código Crystal. An interview with former CNI Head Felix Sanz Roldán (in Spanish) about secrecy and transparency. He argues that a release and declassification legislation would increase trust in intelligence agencies. rtve.es/play/audios/co…

This is excellent, spelling out the difficulties for an Inquiry asked to assess, not just how intelligence was acquired and assessed a quarter of a century ago, but how, at that time, without the benefit of hindsight, it should have been acted on. instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/omagh-…

Excellent news that Bill Tutte is being commemorated on a VE-80 stamp. What a pity that the Post Office doesn't seem to know that 'codebreak' isn't a verb and that codes and ciphers are different. If only there was a national agency that they could have approached for advice ...

A new post at siginthistorian.blogspot.com looks at what can happen when two opposing sides are using the same cryptosystems.

It's easy to overclassify and it's easy to be nervous about release. An illustration of this point in a new post on siginthistorian.blogspot.com