Last week, I wrote something here about the longstanding love of the new head of the Joint Intelligence Committee for The Grateful Dead. Now we can consider another top spy's musical taste. This time, it's Eliza Manningham-Buller, who was, until recently, the boss of MI5.
She appeared on Desert Island Discs on Sunday, and told us that she's a fan of the Rolling Stones, because they had 'more edge and were sexier' than the Beatles.
She picked Street Fighting Man as one of her desert island choices. The others were:
Sarabande from Bach's English Suite No 2 in A Minor
The Kyrie from Mozart's Requiem
I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself by The White Stripes
The opening of Schubert's String Quintet in C
Millennia by the Soweto String Quartet
Do I Love You, by Ella Fitzgerald
Beethoven's Symphony No 7 in A Major
Pleasingly eccelectic and all very tasteful. And as she's not in office any more, we can safely assume they really are her own, and not picked for her by a mysterious spin doctor, any more than Alex Allan's Deadheadery was manufactured.
In case anyone is wondering, Eliza M-B chose as her book The Rattle Bag, which is an anthology of poetry edited by Ted Hughes and Seamus Heaney, and as her luxury, a large supply of pencils and pens. This is perhaps not as exciting as what 'Q' might have supplied, but shows an admirable sense of frugality and self sufficience.
The old story goes that real-life spies are a bit dull and chosen to blend in to the background, unlike their fictional equivalents. But I'm beginning to wonder if they might be every bit as intriguing, and just a bit lower key.
