By Geoffrey Levy Melita Norwood, codenamed Hola, was one of the KGB's most prized spies She ended her days in a cosy, third-floor rented flat in a sheltered housing complex. Untroubled by the problems of the world, and with the added comfort of her married daughter Anita living nearby, Melita Norwood enjoyed the tranquillity of the small development ringed with flowering trees, and got on with her jam-making until her death, aged 93. How fortunate she was. In many other countries, the grey-haired great-grandmother would have ended her days in prison, or even been shot. For Mrs Norwood was no ordinary granny. Over a period of 35 years, she had been a spy for the KGB, passing on Britain’s nuclear secrets that enabled the Soviet Union to catch up in building the atomic bomb.
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Melita Norwood, codenamed Hola, was a prized spy in Moscow
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Passed on Britain's top nuclear secrets over a period of 35 years
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Her name emerged in the Mitrokhin Archive nine years after she died
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Neighbours believed she was a charming eccentric old lady
But a decision not to put her on trial was quickly taken so that the collapsing @placeholder would remain in ignorance about just how much we knew.