Shedding light on Cold War escape

May I correct one statement in Richard Fitzpatrick’s article (Features, Feb 16) on the escape of the double-agent George Blake from Wormwood Scrubs in 1966 with the collaboration of Seán Bourke and assistance from Pat Pottle, my wife Anne, and myself.

He relates how Anne and I, with our two young children, drove Blake in the hidden compartment of a camper van to East Germany, and states: “They made it safely, managing to hand over Blake to KGB operatives in East Berlin.”

This gives the impression that we had some direct dealings with the KGB. In fact, at no time did we have any contact, direct or indirect, with the KGB, and would not have assisted in the escape if it had involved that. We dropped George Blake off on the side of the road within sight of the East German checkpoint to West Berlin while we drove on into the city and booked into a hotel there. As Blake recounts in his autobiography, No Other Choice, he then walked to the checkpoint without any papers or means of identification and was accommodated overnight until his KGB minder arrived and identified him the following morning.