A copy of Beyond Enkription's final high-resolution front cover
Beyond Enkription is the first stand-alone book in a series of six autobiographical espionage novels called The Burlington Files mainly based on Bill Fairclough's experiences and exploits. Part of the core plot in Beyond Enkription is centred around the misspelling of “encryption”.
Beyond Enkription was self-published as an eBook and paperback in 2014. The official date of publication marked the fortieth anniversary of the opening chapter in Beyond Enkription and was “coincidentally” on purpose the same day as Bill Fairclough's father’s birthday. In August 2015 a hardback version was published by Dolman Scott; it was less expensive than self-publishing a hardback version on Amazon. The eBook, paperback and hardback formats of the book are mostly available worldwide on Amazon. The paperback and hardback versions are available from most posh bookshops around the world.
Bill Fairclough was acknowledged as the author of Beyond Enkription for legal reasons and did in fact write most of the first novel. The copyright for The Burlington Files was originally owned by The Burlington Files Limited.
Beyond Enkription was “written for film”: i.e. it was not published to make profits as a book per se but was written solely with screen adaptation in mind. As an autobiographical journal it reads like a sophisticated version of The Diary of Anne Frank. It reads like a novel and is not a film script but can be readily adapted into such. That is why Beyond Enkription was originally referred to as a “Novelog” on The Burlington Files website. Endorsements and reviews of the book are available via The Burlington Files website and on Amazon websites et al.
The book is not like a normal Le Carré concoction adorned with flowery diction and it's not about a Fleming flowerpot who saves the world at the end of each book in the series. It’s about down to earth realistic “warts and all” espionage. Indeed, several critics have described Edward Burlington in Beyond Enkription as a posh Harry Palmer. Palmer was the protagonist in the espionage films starring Michael Caine which were based on the spy novels such as Funeral in Berlin and The Ipcress File written by Len Deighton.
Beyond Enkription has not been marketed like a traditional spy novel would be having been “offered” to the film industry. Accordingly, the book has to date not hit the charts other than in obtuse ways in China and old Soviet Bloc countries such as the Ukraine and Bulgaria. It is estimated that in aggregate over 60,000 copies were sold through illegitimate eBook libraries within a year or so of its publication on Kindle.
In 2020 David Alexander Cardamone [11] , an aficionado of all things to do with espionage, created the Beyond Enkription Book Trailer as a gift for Bill Fairclough after having been beguiled by reading Beyond Enkription. The book trailer video is accessible via https://bit.ly/TBFL-Video. The video is extraordinary given that David Cardamone was born deaf.
History of Beyond Enkription
Bill Fairclough started writing Beyond Enkription in 1975 while in an isolation ward in a UK hospital suffering from what was eventually diagnosed as cytomegalovirus. However, it was only in 2009 that work on the project began in earnest. According to Bill Fairclough, the rationale for putting pen to paper was to create a TV series or films to show the world just how much it had been duped by those illustrious civil servants, Ian Fleming and David Cornwell (John le Carré). Hence, the comparison of Edward Burlington with Harry Palmer is not only remarkable but also somewhat coincidental.
In July 2009 Bill Fairclough was approached again to try to make some films loosely based on his experiences. At the time he was still heavily involved with Faire Sans Dire and acting as a director for various property and finance companies. Through intermediaries he contacted two well-known film production companies to assess their appetite for making films comprising a pot-pourri of unusual concepts and experiences based on his somewhat unconventional and maverick dual existence.
Despite all their initial enthusiasm, the negotiations with those companies’ executives came to nothing. Both film production companies advised Bill that he must first present his material in book and/or film script format. Sadly, his approach to one US corporation eventually landed on stony ground when MGM, which produced many of the James Bond films, filed for bankruptcy. MGM has since recovered. The other household name film production company approached was based in the UK but had a full production agenda for many years ahead and still had over a decade later.
Accordingly, The Burlington Files series was born and Beyond Enkription written and published. Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, you could even go on an up-market tour based on just a few months of Bill Fairclough's life in London in 1974 as depicted in Beyond Enkription and explained in the news about Beyond Enkription on The Burlington Files website.
Where possible, details of the real life identities of the main characters in Beyond Enkription have been disclosed in an article entitled The Burlington Files Characters [18] . In real life most of those identified worked in British Intelligence or the CIA in the seventies. Also, in real life the fictional accountancy firm Porter Williams was Coopers & Lybrand.
Synopsis of Beyond Enkription
Beyond Enkription is a stand-alone novel set in 1974 in the heart of the disco fevered seventies, the (First) Cold War and the escalating Irish Troubles in the purportedly united British Isles. It is about a wayward accountant, Edward Burlington aka Bill Fairclough who unwittingly ends up working as an agent for MI6 by night whilst auditing beans during the day.
His parents, Roger and Sara Burlington have been involved in espionage since 1939. While Roger is still a member of the Joint Intelligence Committee, Sara’s address book appears to be more like a Who's Who of NATO's intelligence services than a housewife’s little black book. Both Roger and Sara desperately wanted their sons, Hugh and Edward, to follow in their footsteps but things didn’t go to plan, given Edward’s rebellious nature.
Consequently, Edward unintentionally wrecked their plans for him and unwittingly ends up working as an MI6 asset. Early in 1974 he is nearly killed not once, but four times. Indirectly it is all MI6's fault... so far as his parents are concerned. Sara decides someone high up in MI6 must pay and persuades Roger to exact revenge. Meanwhile Edward is underhandedly despatched to supposed safety from London to Nassau, Bahamas to continue his career as an accountant only to face more death-defying scenarios in the Bahamas, Brazil and Haiti before the year’s end.
However, the CIA has a representative on the Joint Intelligence Committee and is therefore already aware of Edward’s exploits and capabilities. They turn him into their asset within 48 hours of his landing in Nassau, Bahamas.
Meanwhile Edward’s family are sucked inexorably into the perfidious mess and intrigue surrounding his double life. Simultaneously, Hugh’s involvement with MI6 becomes increasingly intriguing as the entangled plots and layered webs of deceit, betrayal and revenge reverberate from Kinshasa to Islamabad via Washington and Westminster and back while NATO's espionage apparatus is exposed as being as incompetent as Philby proved it was.
Citations
Cited 01 - The Burlington Files website owned by The Burlington Files Limited. https://www.theburlingtonfiles.org/
Cited 02 - The Burlington Files Limited has three wholly owned subsidiary companies. https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/08005044
Cited 03 - endorsements and reviews of Beyond Enkription (as a "kind of" film script). https://www.theburlingtonfiles.org/page/endorsements/
Cited 04 - the publishers of the hardcover version of Beyond Enkription. http://dolmanscott.co.uk/
Cited 05 - Amazon UK page covering all three editions and formats of Beyond Enkription. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Beyond-Enkription-Burlington-Files-1/dp/1497314186
Cited 06 - locations and publishers where Beyond Enkription may be obtained. http://bit.ly/BeyondEnkriptionPublishers
Cited 07 - an article about tours available based on Beyond Enkription. https://www.theburlingtonfiles.org/indexd4a6.html?p=124
Cited 08 - an up-market London tour guide's website offering tours. http://www.henriettaferguson.com/top-secret
Cited 09 - Bill Fairclough's independently reviewed WikiSpooks profile. https://wikispooks.com/wiki/Bill_Fairclough
Cited 10 - Bill Fairclough's biography including references available in the public domain. https://www.wikitree.com/index.php?title=Fairclough-119&public=1
Cited 11 - The Facebook page of David Alexander Cardamone (Cardomani)
https://www.facebook.com/NinjaDavidCardamone?fref=gs&dti=1585443811691614&hc_location=group_dialog
Further Reading
For more background material relating to Beyond Enkription please see Bill Fairclough's biographies and The Burlington Files.
References
[1] Cited 01 - The Burlington Files website owned by The Burlington Files Limited.
Apr 14, 2018 12:45 PM
[2] Cited 02 - The Burlington Files Limited has three wholly owned subsidiary companies.
Apr 14, 2018 12:46 PM
[3] Cited 03 - endorsements and reviews of Beyond Enkription (as a "kind of" film script).
Apr 14, 2018 12:57 PM
[4] Cited 04 - the publishers of the hardcover version of Beyond Enkription.
Apr 14, 2018 1:10 PM
[5] Cited 05 - Amazon UK page covering all three editions and formats of Beyond Enkription.
Apr 14, 2018 1:11 PM
[6] Cited 06 - locations and publishers where Beyond Enkription may be obtained.
Apr 14, 2018 1:12 PM
[7] Cited 07 - an article about tours available based on Beyond Enkription.
Apr 14, 2018 1:25 PM
[8] Cited 08 - an up-market London tour guide's website offering tours.
Apr 14, 2018 1:27 PM
[9] Cited 09 - Bill Fairclough's independently reviewed WikiSpooks profile.
Apr 14, 2018 4:57 PM
[10] Cited 10 - Bill Fairclough's biography including references available in the public domain.
Apr 14, 2018 4:57 PM
[11] Cited 11 - The Facebook page of David Alexander Cardamone (Cardomani)
Aug 3, 2020 9:35 AM
RELEVANT HASHTAGS
#Agents #BetterThanBond #BritishIntelligence #BurlingtonFiles #CIA #Cyber #DCS #EdwardBurlington #Espionage #FaireSansDire #FBI #Forensics #FSB #GCHQ #GoodReads #GRU #Infiltration #Intelligence #Investigations #KGB #Lobbying #MI1 #MI5 #MI6 #NATO #NSA #Police #Risk #Screening #Security #Spies #Spooks #SpyNovel #SpyThriller #Subversion #Surveillance #SVR #TheBurlingtonFiles #Vetting