It has been claimed that an 87-year-old English woman, who has been uncovered as a Soviet spy, was the most important British female agent ever recruited by the KGB. Melita Norwood, code named Hola, provided scientific and technological intelligence to the Soviet Union for over 40 years, while working as a secretary for the British Non-Ferrous Metals Research Association in London.
Ms Norwood, whose former career as a spy was revealed in a book by a Cambridge academic said she had no regrets for what she had done. The book, The Mitrokhin Archive, is being serialised in the London Times newspaper. Norwood is now a great-grandmother who potters around her English garden and spends her days making jam. Her late husband, a maths teacher, was the only one who knew her secret.
Intelligence experts put Melita Norwood on a par with "The Magnificient Five" the KGB nickname for the Cambridge spy ring led by Kim Philby. The daughter of a Latvian refugee and an English mother, Norwood’s motivation was political, not financial: she wanted Russia to be on an equal footing with the West. Today, she is unrepentant but says that she does fear for her friends, family and neighbours under the media spotlight. Although the security services know all about her past, they say that it is unlikely that she will be prosecuted.
