Barrie Penrose

Born in Croydon, Penrose was educated at John Ruskin Grammar School, followed by the London School of Economics.

He worked for the New York Herald Tribune in Paris, The Observer and The Sunday Times and BBC Television.

In December 1979, John Cairncross who had secretly admitted to an MI6 interrogator that he had spied for the Soviets, was approached by Penrose and made a full confession to the journalist. The news was widely publicized leading many to believe that Cairncross was the so-called "fifth man" of the Cambridge Five spy ring. This designation would be confirmed in 1989 by KGB agent Oleg Gordievsky who defected to Britain.[1]

Penrose wrote The Pencourt File (with BBC colleague Roger Courtiour) based on information recounted by Harold Wilson, shortly after he had resigned as prime minister. Wilson requested contact with the journalists about conspiracies during his period in government.[2][3]

Penrose died on 5 July 2020 due to complications of Parkinson's disease.[4]

• Penrose, Barrie (1969). The Art Scene. Littlehampton Book Services Ltd. ISBN 978-0600000532.
• Penrose, Barrie; Courtiour, Roger (1978). The Pencourt File. Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd. ISBN 978-0436366406.
• Penrose, Barrie (1983). Stalin's Gold: The Story of HMS Edinburgh and Its Treasure. Little Brown & Co. ISBN 978-0316698771.
• Penrose, Barrie; Freeman, Simon (1996). Rinkagate: The Rise and Fall of Jeremy Thorpe. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-0747533399.