not only died, he had evaporated into nothing." Her grandchildren were allowed to read her memoir only shortly before her death. All of Alec's wives kept his secrets, maintaining the image of him as a heroic figure for the sake of his children. In 2005, Wilson and Dorothy's son, Michael (then aged 73), asked his son's friend, journalist and academic Tim Crook, to investigate his father's life. An actor and poet, Michael had changed his name by deed poll to Mike Shannon. Crook spent six years on the project, publishing the results in a 2010 book entitled The Secret Lives of a Secret Agent: the Mysterious Life and Times of Alexander Wilson. Crook uncovered Wilson's marriage to Gladys, whose son Dennis told him about the funeral arrangements, and so revealed the marriage to Alison. Alison's sons told him that they had been contacted by Elizabeth's son, Douglas Ansdell, and so had discovered Alec's fourth wife. Crook concludes that Wilson's spy novels reveal details of intelligence work so precise as to indicate first-hand experience. Wilson may have been encouraged to write them by the intelligence services to portray themselves as all-powerful, Crook says. And the lack of evidence about Wilson's life may be due to an intelligence operation meant to expunge all traces of him from public records, Crook told a reporter. All of Alec Wilson's surviving offspring with their families, 28 persons in all, met for the first time in December 2007 in Hampshire. Each of Alec's children wore a badge indicating who their parents were. Since that first meeting the extended family has tried to meet regularly. Actress Ruth Wilson, daughter of Nigel, is one of Alec's grandchildren, and discovered that the children of Mike Shannon were also professionals working in playwriting, filmmaking and drama education. Ruth's brother, Sam Wilson, a senior BBC journalist, wrote an article in The Times in 2010 that explored the impact of Alexander Wilson's complicated private life on his various families. Mrs Wilson Crook's book on Wilson and his numerous articles inspired the production of the BBC's 2018 three-part drama Mrs Wilson, starring Iain Glen as Alec Wilson. Ruth Wilson, daughter of Nigel Wilson, portrayed her own grandmother, Alison Wilson, and was also an executive producer. Mrs Wilson was nominated in three categories (mini-series, leading actress, supporting actress) for the 2019 Bafta TV awards. Descendants Wilson had seven children with his four wives in