Blake, George (1922–1994)

British double agent who worked for MI6 (see intelligence) and also for the USSR. Blake was unmasked by a Polish defector in 1961 and imprisoned, but escaped to the Eastern bloc in 1966. He is said to have betrayed at least 42 British agents to the Soviet side.

Blake, George (1893–1961)

Scottish novelist and journalist. In direct opposition to the sentimental Kailyard School, his novels are set in urban industrial Scotland. The Shipbuilders (1935) is about Glasgow in the Depression.

Mince Collop Close (1923), a sordid tale of slum life in Glasgow, was followed by The Wild Men (1925) and The Path of Glory (1929), a war story. Returning to Scotland in 1932, he settled in Helensburgh and published several works with a Clyde setting, including Down to the Sea (1937) and The Firth of Clyde (1952).

Blake was born in Greenock. He studied law, but after serving in World War I he turned to journalism, becoming literary editor of the Glasgow Evening News. In 1924 he became acting editor of John o'London's Weekly, and in 1928 editor of the Strand Magazine.