A U3A meeting at Caryford Hall, Castle Cary with speaker Martin Lloyd.

Thrill to a dramatic account of how the actions of a group of assassins brought about a change in the passport regulations; how the unmasking of a spy caused a modification in passport design and how, for one man, the passport itself turned into a killer.

Author and former immigration officer Martin Lloyd has made the study of passports his passion and has written the definitive book on the subject, The Passport, the History of Man’s Most Travelled Document. He is often heard on radio and seen on television, and when the blue passport was reintroduced he had to race around the country to deliver 11 television and radio interviews in the space of one day.

In this talk he reveals how three passports have played an influential role in the course of history: an attempted assassination which altered the regulations for issuing passports; the capture of a spy which caused a worldwide modification to the design of the document; and, for one person, the passport itself which turned into a killer.