Lobster, 214 Westbourne Avenue, Hull, HU5 3JB, United Kingdom, Tel: 01482-447558. Edited by Robin Ramsay.

A Who's Who of the British Secret State. 1989. 111 pages. ($10)

Lobster is one of the more obscure parapolitical journals in Britain. On the other hand, journalists routinely call them when fishing for leads, because Robin Ramsay has done his homework. "Journalism is not about research. They don't have time to read background so they rely on others," says Ramsay, who gets weary of being a free information service for Fleet Street.

One recent issue, for example, had a dense 11-page article on the Moonies, WACL, and the Korean CIA, topped off with 262 expansive end notes and a bibliography with 169 sources. Not exactly your tea-and-crumpets fare. Their Who's Who special edition has thumbnail bios of almost 2,000 British spooks, compiled by Stephen Dorril from reference works at the local public library. Ramsay doesn't make enough from sales to cover his labor. This sounds familiar to us at PIR, so we recommend everything they publish.

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