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Updates; Revisions; New Material

"Truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies."

Churchill's famous dictum

"The lie - the cover plan - is so precious that it should be flanked with an escort of truths."

Mure's variant, inspired by Dudley Clarke

"Truth is so precious that it must be heavily rationed."

Stokes' sub-variant, based on Lenin

On this page I will add links within the website to new or revised information.

Website viewers are welcome to contribute to this discussion.

My contact e-mail for this site is : rjs@maskelynemagic.com

I hope to tackle the following topics over the next month:

Julian Trevelyan's memoirs , Indigo Days: Julian's pre-war experiments with Mescalin crystals ("the key to the universe") and his camouflage training with Maskelyne at Farnham in October 1940.

The First Hollywood Screenplay (c.1967) written by Jerry Ziegman and John Wilder. Why did Twentieth Century Fox cancel the project ?

Clayton Hutton's legal battles after the war. In 1950 , his completed book, Escaping on a Shoestring, was banned from publication under the Official Secrets Act.

I am Jack/ I am Jasper: the curious link between the Jack the Ripper diary forgery and the Maskelyne myth

Information on the 'sunshields' tank camouflage test of 1941.

Peter Proud's camouflage work in Tobruk including the rancid flour recipe

Uncovering the real identity of a magic gang member :Brian Robb (1913-1979), Punch cartoonist (1936-39) and author of 'My Middle East Campaigns' in 1944.

Plan Bertram - the official record of Ayrton's deception plan on the eve of the main battle of Alamein

Unreliable Witness: Nigel West's critical analysis of fanciful tales of espionage and derring-do during WW2.

Confessions of a ghost-hunter: tracking down the secret author who wrote Maskelyne's memoirs

Conversations with author Michael Haag in Hampstead, London (2003)

St. George's Hall: Behind the Scenes by Anne Davenport and John Salisse

Review of SOE: the Scientific Secrets by Boyce and Everett(2003)

Review of Colin Dobinson's Fields of Deception : Britain's Bombing Decoys of World War 2 (2000)

Alamein Updated - analysing two new books on this famous battle: "Alamein" by Stephen Bungay (2002)

and "Pendulum of War : The Three Battles of El Alamein" by Niall Barr (2004)

Maintaining the Illusion: Review of Channel Four's 'documentary' on Jasper Maskelyne

Blinded by the Light: critical comments on Paul Zenon and "Crafty Tricks of War" shown on BBC 2 in early 2004.

The death of Maskelyne's second wife in Africa and the return of certain items to the family

Jasper Maskelyne's official war record (which confirms several arrival and departure dates , but does not contain startling information).

and a review of David Fisher's revised (?) version of "The War Magician" (2004), which is being republished in hardback this month.

P.S. I found that when I transferred text to the Web format, footnotes refused to go along for the ride.

It is possible to set up footnotes for web documents, but it's quite a tricky business and takes time. I'll have to sort this problem out in future uploads.

Also, the transfer played havoc with italicisation. I have tried to correct this, article by article, but some discrepancies may show up.

RJS