FEATURE: From MI5 to WMD

Mark McLaughlin
Edinburgh Evening News
February 28, 2009

WHEN Iraq war whistleblower Dr David Kelly was found dead in the woods near his home, conspiracy theories abounded that MI5 may have played a part in his death.

It was a tale straight from the pages of a John Le Carré novel, but for Zinnie Harris, co-author of a new Scottish Opera depiction of Kelly's final days, the theories were too far fetched even for her.

The 36-year-old from The Grange is used to weaving elaborate conspiracies as lead scriptwriter of hit BBC spy series Spooks, but Zinnie found enough drama in the official version of events without indulging in wild speculation.

"Some of the best episodes of Spooks are about betrayal and personal intrigue," said Zinnie. "What happens when you're forced to lie for a living, and how does that affect your personal life? It's the basis of all great spy thrillers. On Spooks, we work closely with an MI5 advisor to keep it as real as we can. However, Spooks is a thriller and you have to keep ratcheting up the tension - real life is a little different."

When the Kelly affair was unfolding in 2003 it made a deep impression on Zinnie, despite her own joyous personal circumstances. Her first child had just been born after a series of miscarriages, and her work was gaining international recognition and awards. She said: "I remember sitting watching the news with the baby on my lap listening to David Kelly give evidence and his replies were so quiet and meek. I thought, 'here is a man who is trying to speak the truth but his voice is being taken away from him'."

With the help of her composer husband John, 38, Zinnie spun these feelings into a script for their 15-minute opera Death of a Scientist.

It was a journey that began with her return to Edinburgh in 1995 to enrol in a scriptwriting workshop at The Traverse Theatre.

Born in Reading, she moved to Edinburgh aged seven when her entomologist father Mark Shaw, now 63, took a job as keeper of the geology and zoology section at the National Museum of Scotland.

She was enrolled at St George's School for Girls. Her mum Francesca Williamson Shaw, now 62, was a painter and taught art at St Margaret's School.

Following a spell at Bedales boarding school in Hampshire, she went to Oxford to study zoology like her father but, after graduation, she signed up to a theatre post-grad at Hull University.

On her return, she came under the tutelage of Black Watch director John Tiffany at the Traverse. She soon completed her first full play, By Many Wounds, about the disappearance of a young girl.

At this time, Zinnie was volunteering at the HIV/Aids hospice Milestone House, in Oxgangs.

She added: "I also did reading groups at Askham Grange women's prison in York and became fascinated by some of their fantasies surrounding their release day. Many thought their partners would be outside with a limo and a bunch of roses, but nine times out of ten the reality was that they'd run off with someone else and their kids were in care."

Zinnie's breakthrough play took this theme of bittersweet escape and transposed it to the middle of the Atlantic. Further Than The Furthest Thing, which toured the world and won a host of awards, is set on the remote volcanic island of Tristan da Cunha. In 1961, the entire population was evacuated to Southampton when the volcano erupted, and Zinnie's play recounts their fight to return home in the face of fierce government opposition.

Her next project was a war trilogy: Midwinter, Solstice and Fall, which brought her writing bang in step with the zeitgeist.

Zinnie doesn't feel qualified to comment on perceptions of Britain's own "war crimes" in the Middle East, but the war certainly evokes a strong response.

She said: "I think carving up the cradle of civilisation and destroying thousands of years' worth of history in a smash and grab raid of their oil was unacceptable."