I asked a Western person who has been living in Beirut for decades about her/his impressions of Kim Philby, who she/he knew very well in those days. She/he does not want to be identified by name but wrote me this (I use with his/her permission): "Re Kim Philby, he was a good friend during the 1950s and early 1960s. We had several foreign journalist/writer friends at that time -- others were Peter Mansfield and Desmond Stewart -- all of whom were sympathetic to Arab nationalism and Nasserism, and highly critical of US/UK policy in the Middle East. I think he was writing for The Observer and The Economist. Not sure now. That's all I can remember about now except that he drank a lot; and loved cockroaches. Eccentric in fact. It was a shock to lose his company when he disappeared in 1963. I was planning to called our 3rd child 'Kim'."