Espionage and secret services Books

Book Synopsis'Puts Richard Kerbaj in the front rank of modern authors on espionage. It is, by turns, gripping and shocking and sheds completely new light on the most important intelligence alliance in the world' -- Tim Shipman, author of All Out War The Secret History of The Five Eyes: The untold story of the international spy network, is a riveting and exclusive narrative of the most powerful and least understood intelligence alliance, which has been steeped in secrecy since its formation in 1956. Richard Kerbaj, an award-winning investigative journalist and filmmaker, bypasses the usual censorship channels to tell the definitive account of authoritative but unauthorised stories of the Western world's most powerful but least known intelligence alliance made up of the US, Britain, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. As Kerbaj shows, spy stories are never better than when they are true - and these span from 1930s Nazi spy rings to the most recent developments in Ukraine and China. Through personal interviews with world leaders - including British Prime Ministers Theresa May and David Cameron - and more than 100 intelligence officials, this book explores the complex personalities who helped shape the Five Eyes. They include a Scotland Yard detective who became a spymaster and inspired the first exchanges between MI5 and the FBI. An American home economics teacher who helped create one of the most effective programmes to counter Soviet espionage. The CIA's lone officer in Budapest during the Hungarian Revolution. GCHQ's chief during the Edward Snowden intelligence leak. And the Australian politician turned diplomat whose tip-off to the FBI instigated the inquiry into Russia's meddling in the US presidential contest between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in 2016. Richard Kerbaj is able to draw from deep inside the secret corridors of power and his unparalleled access spans all 5 countries. Some of the people he has interviewed include former GCHQ director Sir Iain Lobban, CIA director General David Petraeus, MI5 director-general Eliza Manningham-Buller, NSA director Admiral Mike Rogers, British National Security Advisor Kim Darroch, ASIO chief Mike Burgess, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service's chief Richard Fadden, and Ciaran Martin, the official who oversaw Britain's assessments on whether the Chinese telecoms firm, Huawei, should have had a role in the creation of the UK's 5G network. This page-turning book will lift the lid on spy stories from across the English-speaking world, question the future of the alliance, and our place within it.Trade Review'Puts Richard Kerbaj in the front rank of modern authors on espionage. It is, by turns, gripping and shocking and sheds completely new light on the most important intelligence alliance in the world' -- Tim Shipman, author of All Out War

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Book SynopsisThe explosive book from ex-MI5 surveillance officer Tom Marcus takes you on a non-stop, adrenalin-fuelled ride as he hunts down those who would do our country harm.'The brutal truth about the war against terror. Fast-paced and gripping.' - Ant Middleton, author of First Man In Tom spent years working covertly to stop those who want to do us harm. In his bestselling memoir Soldier Spy, he told how he was recruited and described some of his top-secret operations. In I Spy, he takes us deeper undercover as he puts his life on the line once more.I Spy plunges straight into the action as Tom and his team race to prevent terrorists from causing carnage on our streets and outsmart Russian agents, blocking a daring plot that threatens the security of the nation. Relying on their quick wits, training and courage, the extraordinary men and women of MI5 are under intense pressure every day.Not everyone is suited for the work, and Tom shows how the incredibly tough challenges he faced growing up gave him the mental strength and skills to survive in a dangerous world.Gritty and eye-opening, this is a unique insight into a hidden war and the sacrifices made by those who fight it. You will never take your safety for granted again.'One of the most successful MI5 undercover surveillance officers of his time.' - SunTrade ReviewOne of the most successful MI5 undercover surveillance officers of his time. * Sun *The brutal truth about the war against terror. Fast-paced and gripping. -- Ant MiddletonA massive operational insight into the war fought on our streets. -- Jason FoxSecret wars fought by heroes who seek no reward. A brilliant read written by a true legend. -- Ollie Ollerton

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewPartial Hegemony is a major and original contribution to international relations theory. Jeff Colgan uses his new conceptualizations of subsystems and partial hegemony in an enlightening analysis of oil politics since the 1970s and a cogent argument for climate clubs to enforce emissions limitations in this decade. * Robert O. Keohane, Professor of International Affairs (Emeritus), Princeton University *Employing a wide-angle lens, Colgan reconceptualizes international order, unabashedly paving a novel framework for power dynamics and systems change. Colgan's analysis provides important insights not only for understanding oil politics, but also for interpreting how efforts to address emerging developments like climate change and the escalating US-China rivalry could influence international affairs. * Alice C. Hill, David M. Rubenstein Senior Fellow for Energy and the Environment, Council on Foreign Relations *Table of ContentsChapter 1 - Introduction ------ Part I: Oil Politics ------ Chapter 2 - Rethinking International Order Chapter 3 - The Rise of OPEC Chapter 4 - The Stagnation of OPEC Chapter 5 - Oil and Security ------ Part II: Beyond Oil ------ Chapter 6 - Using Subsystems Beyond Oil Chapter 7 - Climate Change Chapter 8 - Conclusion

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Book SynopsisTHE SUNDAY TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLING MEMOIR OF SPY-WRITING LEGEND JOHN LE CARRÉ*NOW A MAJOR APPLE TV MOTION PICTURE*''As recognizable a writer as Dickens or Austen'' Financial TimesFrom his years serving in British Intelligence during the Cold War to a career as a writer, John le Carré has lived a unique life.In this, his first memoir, le Carré is as funny as he is incisive - reading into the events he witnesses the same moral ambiguity with which he imbues his novels. Whether he''s interviewing a German terrorist in her desert prison or watching Alec Guinness preparing for his role as George Smiley, this book invites us to think anew about events and people we believed we understood.Best of all, le Carré gives us a glimpse of a writer''s journey over more than six decades, and his own hunt for the human spark that has given so much life and heart to his fictional characters.''No other writer has charted - pitilessly for politicians but thrillingly for readers - the public and secret histories of his times'' Guardian''When I was under house arrest I was helped by the books of John le Carré . . . These were the journeys that made me feel that I was not really cut off from the rest of humankind'' Aung San Suu KyiTrade ReviewFascinating, important, pithy. Anyone interested in le Carré and his significant contribution to the literature of the 20th and 21st centuries will want to read these engaging meanderings through his life and career.He has plenty to say about Kim Philby, the movie business, fellow spooks and Russian defectors, encounters with the great and good, and his intrepid travels to research his novels -- William Boyd * Guardian *Vintage le Carré ... [he] remains a magician of plot and counter-plot, a master storyteller * Observer *John le Carré is as recognizable a writer as Dickens or Austen * Financial Times *When I was under house arrest I was helped by the books of John le Carré ... they were a journey into the wider world ... These were the journeys that made me feel that I was not really cut off from the rest of humankind * Aung San Suu Kyi *No other writer has charted - pitilessly for politicians but thrillingly for readers - the public and secret histories of his times * Guardian *A smashing read -- Richard Davenport-Hines * Wall Street Journal *Offers thrills of recognition as le Carré's archetypes spring to life... The 84-year old novelist discards extended narrative and writes in elegiac fragments with linking harmonies, like the late works of that other German Romantic, Beethoven -- John Gapper * Financial Times *Exceptionally well-turned and enjoyable -- David Sexton * Evening Standard *Grippingly written, it is revealing in ways the author never intended it to be * Sunday Telegraph *Cagey, clever, revealing * Daily Telegraph *le Carré is a master of the art... fascinatingly readable * The Times *Frank and fascinating * Daily Express *The Pigeon Tunnel is a delight... a collection of highly polishes oddments from a life, assembled to entertain and inform...fabulously funny * Radio Times *A snapshot of a story that is, truly, as extraordinary as any of his fiction * Daily Mail *For me The Pigeon Tunnel just confirms the enigma... extremely humorous... at no point do I feel that I knew one tiny bit more than he wants me to know -- Susanne Bier, director of The Night ManagerHe has written an uproarious, darkly poignant and precious book -- James Naughtie * New Statesman *A beautiful book. The great glory of it is it comes close to unlocking the central mystery of le Carré -- Tony ParsonsAs enthralling as his fiction * Woman and Home *Le Carré is such a good writer . . . Though urbane and detached, there is rage simmering not far below the surface of both le Carré and his new book. But then, nothing, absolutely nothing, is what it seems * Daily Mail *A deeply personal and touching account of le Carré's life ... it has undeniable power * Prospect *Explosive * Daily Mail *le Carré's The Pigeon Tunnel is exquisite -- Hugh LaurieI savoured the gravelly, quietly insistent voice of a master storyteller examining his own life -- Michela Wrong * The Spectator *the entertaining recollections of a raconteur -- Neil McCormick * Telegraph *Elusive and frank and witty by turns, the spy master gives away just as much of himself as he wants to in The Pigeon Tunnel, tracing the story of his life through his walk-on parts in the history and mythology of the cold war, and the shape-shifting discipline of his imagination -- Tim Adams * Guardian Biographies of the Year *

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Book Synopsis''Pulse-pounding'' Sinclair McKay ''Truly masterful'' Damien Lewis ''Who needs spy fiction, when fact can provide as thrilling a story as this?'' Lindsey HilsumThe Spymaster of Baghdad is the gripping story of the top-secret Iraqi intelligence unit that infiltrated the Islamic State. More so than that of any foreign power, the information they gathered turned the tide against the insurgency, paving the way to the killing of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2019.Against the backdrop of the most brutal conflict of recent decades, we chart the spymaster''s struggle to develop the unit from scratch in challenging circumstances after the American invasion of Iraq in 2003, we follow the fraught relationship of two of his agents, the al-Sudani brothers - one undercover in ISIS for sixteen long months, the other his handler - and we track a disillusioned scientist as she turns bomb-maker, threatening the lives of thousands.With unprecTrade ReviewAuthentic, moving, visceral, chilling, utterly revelatory, truly masterful. A stunning tour de force by an author who has lived every word of it on the ground. A story of our time that absolutely needs to be told -- Damien Lewis, bestselling author of Zero Six BravoSearing, pulse-pounding, yet also acutely human, this compelling account of how Iraqi agents infiltrated ISIS takes us deep beneath the lurid Baghdad and Mosul headlines and into a sharply focused world of courage, ingenuity, terror and love. This is not just a story of dry-mouthed espionage, but also of its profound repercussions upon loved ones and family; the intense struggle to live in peace in a land where extremists of all varieties seek to bring death. Greatly illuminating and powerful -- Sinclair McKay, bestselling author of DresdenCoker's book would do John le Carré - and undoubtedly any number of Operations Officers - proud for her treatment of the role, value, and challenges of human intelligence and agent running. This book is not about the high-tech gadgetry of surveillance drones, signals intercepts, or cyber intelligence, though all three play a role in this story. It is about the unrivaled value of the man or woman on-the-ground or in the loop with access to the information. It is about the delicate art of handling a source, an agent, or an informant -- Joshua C. Huminski, Director of the Mike Rogers Center for Intelligence & Global Affairs at the Center for the Study of the Presidency & Congress * Diplomatic Courier *This eye-opening account of the Iraqi intelligence unit which infiltrated Islamic State may read like a thriller, yet it is also grounded in the experiences of everyday Iraqis . . . a unique masterpiece in the genres of espionage writing and spy biography -- Vin Arthey * Scotsman *Margaret Coker, formerly of The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, continued to cover Iraq after most of the American press corps had moved on; she has produced a gripping new book about the shadow war between Iraqi intelligence officers and the Islamic State, The Spymaster of Baghdad . . . Her subject is an elite Iraqi espionage unit called "the Falcons," composed of ordinary men who helped save their country from the onslaught of ISIS. Coker's reporting on these men, their families, and the family of a young woman recruited by terrorists is so meticulous that it lets her enter invisibly a closed, sometimes frightening world and portray it with cinematic detail -- George Packer * Atlantic *Fast-moving and suspenseful -- Samuel Sweeney * Wall Street Journal *

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Book Synopsis''It''s rare to find a book that is not only intensely personal but deeply practical. Julian Fisher has somehow pulled it off, in this fascinating and engaging guide to the art of influence. Think Like a Spy is a fantastic read, full of eye-opening espionage tradecraft as well as insightful tips on how to achieve your business goals. Highly recommended'' - Henry Hemming, author of Four Shots in the NightDiscover the secret skills of influence and persuasion taught to intelligence officers and how to adapt them to win over personal and professional allies to your cause. Every day, intelligence officers achieve the unimaginable. They persuade people to share classified secrets with them. To become traitors, in fact. And their targets do it willingly, despite the risk of imprisonment, torture and, even, execution. Spies achieve this thanks to their structured use of nine secret skills of espionage. In Think Like a Spy, you''ll learn t

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Book Synopsis**WINNER of the PULITZER PRIZE for NON-FICTION 2016**In a thrilling dramatic narrative, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Joby Warrick traces how the strain of militant Islam behind ISIS first arose in a remote Jordanian prison and spread to become the world''s greatest threat. When the government of Jordan granted amnesty to a group of political prisoners in 1999, it little realized that among them was Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a terrorist mastermind and soon the architect of an Islamist movement bent on dominating the Middle East. In Black Flags, an unprecedented character-driven account of the rise of ISIS, Joby Warrick shows how the zeal of this one man and the strategic mistakes of Western governments led to the banner of ISIS being raised over huge swathes of Syria and Iraq. Zarqawi began by directing terror attacks from a base in northern Iraq, but it was the allied invasion in 2003 that catapulted him to the head of a vast insurgency. By falsely identifying him as the link between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden, Western officials inadvertently spurred like-minded radicals to rally to his cause. Their wave of brutal beheadings and suicide bombings persisted until American and Jordanian intelligence discovered clues that led to a lethal airstrike on Zarqawi's hideout in 2006. His movement, however, endured. First calling themselves al-Qaeda in Iraq, then Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, his followers sought refuge in unstable, ungoverned pockets on the Iraq-Syria border. When the Syrian civil war broke out in 2011, and the rest of the world largely stood by, ISIS seized its chance to pursue Zarqawi's dream of an ultra-conservative Islamic caliphate. Drawing on unique high-level access to global intelligence sources, Warrick weaves gripping, moment-by-moment operational details with the perspectives of diplomats and spies, generals and heads of state, many of whom foresaw a menace worse than al Qaeda and tried desperately to stop it. Black Flags is a brilliant and definitive history that reveals the long arc of today's most dangerous extremist threat.Trade ReviewA deeply reported book of remarkable clarity showing how the flawed rationale for the Iraq War led to the explosive growth of the Islamic State. * Pulitzer Prize committee *Compelling and authoritative, with the narrative drive of a thriller. * Guardian *Joby Warrick moves easily through the intelligence warrens of Washington and the shattered landscape of the Middle East to tell this insightful narrative of the rise of the Islamic State. Black Flags is an invaluable guide to an unfolding tragedy that must be understood before it can be ended. * Lawrence Wright, author of Thirteen Days in September and The Looming Tower *A deep, well-balanced and thought-provoking account with a genuine feel for Middle Eastern realities. * Yuval Noah Harari, author of Sapiens *Warrick uses very compelling first-hand testimony to reconstruct Zarqawi's short, violent life. * Literary Review *This is journalism at its best: clear, readable and enlightening. * The Irish Times *Joby Warrick is one of America's leading national security reporters, so it's no surprise that Black Flags is the most deeply reported and well-written account we have about ISIS and its terrorist army. * Peter Bergen, author of Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for bin Laden from 9/11 to Abbottabad *Invaluable for anyone struggling to understand the gruesome excesses and inexplicable appeal of ISIS. As this seminal book makes alarmingly clear, Zarqawi's appalling legacy won't fade any time soon. -- Bob Drogin * Los Angeles Times *Gripping … Warrick has a gift for constructing narratives with a novelistic energy and detail, and in this volume he creates the most revealing portrait yet laid out in a book of Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, the founding father of the organization that would become the Islamic State… For readers interested in the roots of the Islamic State and the evil genius of its godfather, there is no better book to begin with than Black Flags. * The New York Times *Gripping ... a zippy, atmospheric and character-led narrative. It offers a necessary and important backstory to the unfurling of black flags across Syria and Iraq today. -- Shiraz Maher * New Statesman *A page-turner and a flat-out great book. This is the inside account of how we ended up with the Islamic State, with one revelation after another. If you read one book on ISIS, this is it. * Robert Baer, author of See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War on Terrorism *Drawing on his unrivaled sources and access, Joby Warrick has written a profoundly important and groundbreaking book, one that reads like a novel, riveting from the first page to the last. If you want to know the story behind ISIS, and all of us should, this is the book you must read. * Martha Raddatz, Chief Global Affairs Correspondent, ABC News, and author of The Long Road Home: A Story of War and Family *Riveting and detailed... Warrick’s book might be the most thorough and nuanced account of the birth and growth of ISIS published so far. Black Flags is full of personalities, but it keeps its gaze carefully focused on the wider arc of history. -- Thanassis Cambanis * Boston Globe *Joby Warrick is an exceptional storyteller, and Black Flags is both illuminating and spellbinding. No book better explains the miscalculations, wrong turns, and bad luck that led to the rise of ISIS. * Rick Atkinson, author of The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945 *Joby Warrick weaves Black Flags with the tradecraft of a spy, the mind of an investigative reporter, and the pen of a novelist. * Dana Priest, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post reporter and author of Top Secret America *Compulsively readable. What makes Warrick’s book unique is its focus on the group’s roots, especially the evolution of its founder. -- Jessica Stern * Washington Post *Warrick charts Zarqawi’s rise from booze-swilling Jordanian street tough to one of the most brutal jihadists in the world. * The New Yorker *[A] crisply written, chilling account … Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post reporter Warrick confidently weaves a cohesive narrative from an array of players—American officials, CIA officers, Jordanian royalty and security operatives, religious figures, and terrorists—producing an important geopolitical overview with the grisly punch of true-crime nonfiction … The author focuses on dramatic flashpoints and the roles of key players, creating an exciting tale with a rueful tone, emphasizing how the Iraq invasion's folly birthed ISIS and created many missed opportunities to stop al-Zarqawi quickly. * Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review) *A revealing, riveting and exquisitely detailed account of the life and death of Zarqawi, the improbable terrorist mastermind, and the rise of the movement now known as the Islamic State. * San Francisco Chronicle *A detailed, step-by-step narrative demonstrating how repeated miscalculations wound up empowering the Islamic State … Black Flags provides answers in this still-unfolding history. * Dallas Morning News *

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Book SynopsisThe remarkable story of the fourteen spies who, in the eyes of Nigel West, had the biggest impact on the events of the 20th Century.

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Book SynopsisDuring WW2 there was a rumour that German spies were landing by parachute in Britain, dressed as nuns...Conradin Muller was an unusual spy. He was recruited in Hamburg in June 1943, much against his will, and sent on his first, and only, mission in late September that year. He failed to send a single report back to Germany, and when the War came to an end in May 1945, he fell to his knees and wept with relief.From a highly reluctant German spy who is drawn to an East Anglian nunnery as his only means of escape, to the strange tale of one of the Cambridge spy ring''s adventures with a Russian dwarf, these are Alexander McCall Smith''s intriguing and typically inventive stories from the world of espionage.''Spy-masterful storytelling'' Sunday Post''Delightfully old-fashioned and prudent of prose, McCall Smith unspools his tales'' Daily Mail''[Adds] another treasure to McCall Smith''s already glTrade ReviewSpy-masterful storytelling * Sunday Post *Marvellous... shows off Alexander McCall Smith's accomplishment as a storyteller as its very best * Undiscovered Scotland *There's nothing not to like about Alexander McCall Smith when you read his latest collection of six short stories on the business of spying... These are a half dozen beautifully shaped, delicious morsels, which I devoured even faster than McCall Smith could write them... full of character and detail * Australian *Massively entertaining and thought-provoking * Booklist (starred review) *Based on extensive research and with a fine grip on the slippery nature of the world of espionage, these underhand dealings range from Algeria in 1924 to a modern-day clerical cabal in the Vatican... Delightfully old-fashioned and prudent of prose, McCall Smith unspools his tales * Daily Mail *Taken together, the two parts echo each other. Each story provides a unique cast of characters and distinctly different plots, each offers a gentle portrait of people and society. And each is guided by the mastery of a consummate storyteller, offering another treasure to his already glittering library * New York Journal of Books *Spy-masterful storytelling * Sunday Post *Marvellous... shows off Alexander McCall Smith's accomplishment as a storyteller as its very best * Undiscovered Scotland *There's nothing not to like about Alexander McCall Smith when you read his latest collection of six short stories on the business of spying... These are a half dozen beautifully shaped, delicious morsels, which I devoured even faster than McCall Smith could write them... full of character and detail * Australian *Massively entertaining and thought-provoking * Booklist (starred review) *Based on extensive research and with a fine grip on the slippery nature of the world of espionage, these underhand dealings range from Algeria in 1924 to a modern-day clerical cabal in the Vatican... Delightfully old-fashioned and prudent of prose, McCall Smith unspools his tales * Daily Mail *Taken together, the two parts echo each other. Each story provides a unique cast of characters and distinctly different plots, each offers a gentle portrait of people and society. And each is guided by the mastery of a consummate storyteller, offering another treasure to his already glittering library * New York Journal of Books *

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Book SynopsisIntelligent, ambitious and a rising star in the French artillery, Captain Alfred Dreyfus appeared to have everything: family, money, and the prospect of a post on the General Staff. But his rapid rise had also made him enemies - many of them aristocratic officers in the army''s High Command who resented him because he was middle-class, meritocratic and a Jew.In October 1894, the torn fragments of an unsigned memo containing military secrets were retrieved by a cleaning lady from the waste paper basket of Colonel Maximilien von Schwartzkoppen of the German embassy in Paris. When French intelligence discovered they harboured a spy in their midst, Captain Dreyfus, on slender evidence, was charged with selling military secrets to the Germans, found guilty of treason by unanimous verdict and sentenced to life imprisonment on the notorious Devil''s Island.The fight to free the wrongfully convicted Dreyfus - over twelve long years, through many trials - is a story rife with heroes and villainTrade ReviewThe author effectively deploys his considerable literary talents to master the contortions of the affair and humanise the large cast of villains and heroes. The result is compelling and tense * Sunday Times *Piers Paul Read admirably demonstrates why we still find the subject fascinating more than a century after it resolved * Daily Telegraph *Splendidly is conveys the drama of this episode. He brings to life the tension of trials and court martials * Independent *Masterly and eminently balanced ... Piers Paul Read's narrative is compelling. He disentangles the complicated web of the Affair and is just to both sides. I can't think the story could be better, or more fairly, told * Spectator *In bringing his novelist's eye to bear on events, Read ensures they unfold with a compelling sense of drama. And what an extraordinary story it is ... In admirably clearheaded fashion, he disentangles the facts from the myths and shows that this was far more morally ambiguous story than has often been presented * Sunday Telegraph *Brings an original perspective to The Dreyfus Affair * Financial Times *His intention is to tell the story as it stands and he does so vividly and intelligently * New Statesman *

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Book SynopsisWhat is intelligence why is it so hard to define, and why is there no systematic theory of intelligence? Kjetil Anders Hatlebrekke creates a new, systematic model of intelligence analysis, arguing that good intelligence is based on understanding the threats that appear beyond our experience, and are therefore the most dangerous to society.

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Book Synopsis‘A darkly entertaining tale about American espionage, set in an era when Washington’s fear and skepticism about the agency resembles our climate today.’ New York Times At the end of World War II, the United States dominated the world militarily, economically, and in moral standing – seen as the victor over tyranny and a champion of freedom. But it was clear – to some – that the Soviet Union was already executing a plan to expand and foment revolution around the world. The American government’s strategy in response relied on the secret efforts of a newly-formed CIA. The Quiet Americans chronicles the exploits of four spies – Michael Burke, a charming former football star fallen on hard times, Frank Wisner, the scion of a wealthy Southern family, Peter Sichel, a sophisticated German Jew who escaped the Nazis, and Edward Lansdale, a brilliant ad executive. The four ran covert operations across the globe, trying to outwit the ruthless KGB in Berlin, parachuting commandos into Eastern Europe, plotting coups, and directing wars against Communist insurgents in Asia. But time and again their efforts went awry, thwarted by a combination of stupidity and ideological rigidity at the highest levels of the government – and more profoundly, the decision to abandon American ideals. By the mid-1950s, the Soviet Union had a stranglehold on Eastern Europe, the US had begun its disastrous intervention in Vietnam, and America, the beacon of democracy, was overthrowing democratically elected governments and earning the hatred of much of the world. All of this culminated in an act of betrayal and cowardice that would lock the Cold War into place for decades to come. Anderson brings to the telling of this story all the narrative brio, deep research, sceptical eye, and lively prose that made Lawrence in Arabia a major international bestseller. The intertwined lives of these men began in a common purpose of defending freedom, but the ravages of the Cold War led them to different fates. Two would quit the CIA in despair, stricken by the moral compromises they had to make; one became the archetype of the duplicitous and destructive American spy; and one would be so heartbroken he would take his own life. Scott Anderson’s The Quiet Americans is the story of these four men. It is also the story of how the United States, at the very pinnacle of its power, managed to permanently damage its moral standing in the world.Trade ReviewEnthralling . . . Lying and stealing and invading, it should be said, make for captivating reading, especially in the hands of a storyteller as skilled as Anderson . . . the climate of fear and intolerance that it describes in Washington also feels uncomfortably timely. * New York Times Book Review *Anderson’s look at four men who ran covert operations around the globe after World War II is as thrilling as it is tragic, as each man confronts the moral compromises he made in the name of democracy. * Washington Post *In this sweeping, vivid, beautifully observed book, Scott Anderson unearths the devastating secret history of how the United States lost the plot during the Cold War. By focusing on the twisty, colorful lives of four legendary spies, Anderson distills the larger geopolitical saga into an intimate story of flawed but talented men, of the 'disease of empires,' and of the inescapable moral hazard of American idealism and power. It's a hell of a book, with themes about the unintended consequences of espionage and interventionism that still resonate, powerfully, today. -- Patrick Radden Keefe, author of The New York Times bestseller and Orwell Prize-winning Say NothingA probing history of the CIA’s evolving role from the outset of the Cold War into the 1960s, viewed through the exploits of four American spies . . . Anderson delivers a complex, massively scaled narrative, balancing prodigious research with riveting storytelling skills . . . An engrossing history of the early days of the CIA. * Kirkus Reviews *A darkly entertaining tale about American espionage, set in an era when Washington’s fear and skepticism about the agency resembles our climate today. * New York Times *

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Book SynopsisAn extraordinarily brave and moving memoir from one of the world's most famous whistle-blowers, activists and trans women.In 2013, Chelsea Manning was sentenced to thirty-five years in military prison for the largest leak of classified documents in history. The next day, Chelsea declared her gender identity as a woman and began to transition.In this radically candid memoir, Chelsea recounts how her challenging youth led her to join the US Army. She writes of the fierce pride she took in her work, the risks of the military's queer underground and the wider culture of silence and unaccountability. She describes fifty-nine days locked in an iron cage after her fateful decision and the community of solidarity she later discovered in prison. Above all, we see the phenomenal courage and resilience it took to survive and become a global advocate for transparency.'A terrific read, full of unexpected turns and details that counter many of the assumptions made about Manning' GUARDIAN 'Brilliantly told' THE TIMES'Searing...uplifting...redemptive' NEW YORK TIMES'A full and expansive account of Manning's life, one which is often harrowing but funny and poignant too' DAZEDTrade ReviewGripping ... It takes extraordinary qualities to do some of the things she recounts in this book ... Manning has become a new kind of American heroine * Observer *Electrifying ... an insider confessional turned inside out for the 21st century ... Manning reckons with this complex relationship of sex and gender to political radicalism ... absorbing ... sublime * Washington Post *One of the bravest persons alive -- Yanis VaroufakisA terrific read, full of unexpected turns and details that counter many of the assumptions made about Manning at the time ... Opens like a Jason Bourne novel * Guardian *Chelsea Manning is the biggest hero that ever lived -- Vivienne WestwoodA heroine to millions -- Alan MooreA searing personal element ... Although troubling to read, it manages to be uplifting as well * The New York Times *Harrowing ... affecting * New Statesman *A candidly told story from activist Chelsea Manning, which turns the tell-all confessional upside down. ... Chelsea moves through her life story with poignant, personal detail ... It's shocking to read what she's witnessed and triumphed over. * The Face *Forceful ... To those who see Manning as a hero, [her memoir] will only intensify that feeling, given all the hardships she has overcome. Those who see villainy may perhaps find their views tempered by sympathy * Sunday Times *

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Book SynopsisCROSSFIRE HURRICANE DELIVERS THE DEFINITIVE HISTORY OF HOW WE GOT FROM 2016 TO TODAY, tracing the events that lead this country to a historic impeachment and beyond. “A must-read indictment of the ‘mob boss’ in the White House.” —The Guardian “An indispensable and riveting insider’s account of one of the most dramatic and controversial periods in the history of the FBI. Crossfire Hurricane is a must-read for all Americans.” —Daniel Silva, New York Times bestselling author “Campbell speaks both from the heart and experience. A dynamite read.” —Dan Rather, former anchor of CBS Evening News and bestselling author of What Unites Us It is January 6, 2017, two weeks before the inauguration. Only a handful of people know about the Steele dossier, and the nation is bitterly divided by the election results. As rumors begin to circulate that something might be brewing with the newly elected president and Russia, FBI special agent Josh Campbell joins the heads of the US intelligence community on a briefing visit to Trump Tower in New York City. He does not yet know that this meeting will eventually lead to the firing of his boss, James Comey, or that within weeks his former boss Robert Mueller will be appointed to investigate collusion and obstruction of justice at the highest level. He does not yet know that the FBI will come under years of sustained attacks from the commander in chief of the very nation its agents have sworn to protect. But, from his unique position within the FBI, he will watch it occur. In this gripping fly-on-the-wall narrative, Campbell takes readers behind the scenes of the earliest days of the Russia investigation—codename: Crossfire Hurricane—up to the present. Using both firsthand experience and reporting, he reveals fresh details about this tumultuous period; explains how the FBI goes about its work and its historic independence from partisan forces; and describes the increasing dismay inside the bureau as the president and his allies escalate their attacks on the agency. Appalled by Trump’s assault on the bureau’s credibility, Campbell left the FBI in 2018 to sound the alarm about unfair political attacks on the institutions that keep America safe. Smart, clear, passionate, Crossfire Hurricane will captivate readers struggling to make sense of a news cycle careening out of control.Trade Review“A must-read indictment of the ‘mob boss’ in the White House . . . Crossfire Hurricane also turns it guns on Jeff Sessions, the former attorney general; Rod Rosenstein, the former deputy attorney general; William Barr, the current attorney general; and Sarah Sanders, Trump’s former spokeswoman. It is a target-rich environment.” —The Guardian “A newsworthy book in an electoral cycle that promises to see plenty of foreign interference—and little resistance from Republicans.” —Kirkus Reviews “Josh Campbell had the ultimate insider’s perch as President Trump initiated the greatest crisis in the modern history of the FBI. Crossfire Hurricane is his fascinating account of those tumultuous days and a vivid reminder of the importance of honor and candor in law enforcement and politics.” —Jeffrey Toobin, CNN Chief Legal Analyst and author of American Heiress: The Kidnapping, Crimes and Trial of Patty Hearst “With experience, humanity, and humor, Josh brings the reader deep inside the FBI during some of its most difficult days.”—James Comey, former director of the FBI and bestselling author of A Higher Loyalty “Crossfire Hurricane is likely to become one of the most important books of the year. Josh Campbell speaks both from the heart and experience. A dynamite read.”—Dan Rather, former anchor of CBS Evening News and bestselling author of What Unites Us “Josh Campbell spent more than a decade serving America as an FBI agent. He is serving America still by writing this book. He provides an invaluable, behind-the-scenes perch on James Comey's last days and Robert Mueller's subsequent special investigation. Anyone who reads his gripping account will know that the FBI is not a Deep State out to unseat the president. It is a superb and apolitical law enforcement organization that has been blindsided by all of the invective from political partisans. Read this book to find out what the FBI is really like.” —Max Boot, Council on Foreign Relations senior fellow and author of The Corrosion of Conservatism: Why I Left the Right “Crossfire Hurricane is a chilling and engaging contribution to our understanding of the FBI and the Russia investigation. Josh Campbell had a front seat to the decisions and dilemmas facing the FBI before and after 2016 and tells the story with honesty, compassion and even humor. He reminds us that it is too easy to judge by simply saying the FBI should 'follow the book.' When it comes to Russia, President Trump, and a campaign willing to play with a foreign enemy, there is no book. Until Josh Campbell wrote it.” —Juliette Kayyem, former Assistant Secretary, Department of Homeland Security “With no political agenda other than reverence for the FBI as an institution, Campbell offers a compelling and unvarnished portrait of men and women struggling to deliver impartial justice in the middle of a relentless wave of political firestorms.”—Michael Isikoff, bestselling co-author of Russian Roulette and Yahoo! News chief investigative correspondent “An indispensable and riveting insider’s account of one of the most dramatic and controversial periods in the history of the FBI. Crossfire Hurricane is a must-read for all Americans.” —Daniel Silva, New York Times bestselling author “I couldn't put down Crossfire Hurricane: Inside Donald Trump's War on the FBI. The book provides a compelling overview of events surrounding the FBI during the 2016 election and its aftermath. Even for those of us who are still living through this in real time, it's stunning to read a cohesive narrative of the events—often with shocking details from an FBI insider's perspective. Just as important, Josh uses anecdotes throughout the book that capture the essence of what it means to be an FBI agent in the field working every day to help keep this country safe—something that is all too often lost in the day-to-day headlines these days.”—Mimi Rocah, NBC/MSNBC legal analyst and former federal prosecutor

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Book SynopsisWith a new introduction about the crisis in Ukraine.Putin’s Playbook is urgently essential reading. A former U.S. intelligence specialist who was born and raised in the Soviet Union explains what Vladimir Putin wants and how he plans to get it. Russia’s ruler is following a carefully devised plan to defeat the United States.Rebekah Koffler came to America as a young woman. After 9/11, she joined the Defense Intelligence Agency, devoting her career to protecting her new country. Now she reveals in chilling detail Putin’s long-range plan—his “playbook”—to weaken and subdue the United States, preparing for the war that he believes is inevitable.With the insight of a native, Koffler explains how Russians, formed by centuries of war-torn history, understand the world and their national destiny. The collapse of the Soviet empire, which Putin experienced as a vulnerable KGB agent in East Germany, was a catastrophic humiliation. Seeing himself as the modern “Czar Vladimir” of a unique Slavic nation at war with the West, he is determined to restore Russia to its place as a great power.Koffler’s analysis is enriched by her deeply personal account of her life in the Soviet Union. Devoted to her adopted homeland but concerned about the complacency of her fellow citizens, she appreciates American freedoms as only a survivor of totalitarianism can. An opportunity to view ourselves and the world through the eyes of our adversary, Putin’s Playbook is a rare and compelling testimony that we ignore at our peril.

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Book SynopsisPart biography, part forensic jigsaw puzzle, part cold-case detective investigation, The Eagle in the Mirror is the story of Charles Howard 'Dick' Ellis. The longest-serving spy for the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), Ellis helped set up the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), now known as the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS). In the 1940s he was considered one of the top three secret agents in MI6 and controlled its activities, as one journalist put it, 'for half the world'.But in the 1980s crusading espionage journalist Chapman Pincher (in the hugely successful books Their Trade is Treachery and Too Secret Too Long) and retired MI5 intelligence officer Peter Wright (in the worldwide bestseller Spycatcher) posthumously accused Ellis of having operated as a 'triple agent' for Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. In 1965, while under interrogation in London, Ellis had allegedly made a confession that he had supplied information to the Nazis before World War II. However, Pincher's and Wright's accusations against Ellis have never been comprehensively proven. No confession has materialised.Was Ellis guilty or was an innocent man framed? By confessing did he take the fall for someone else? Or had the intelligence agencies of the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia been fatally compromised by a 'super mole'? Internationally bestselling author JESSE FINK (Pure Narco, Bon: The Last Highway, The Youngs) attempts to find out the truth once and for all.The Eagle in the Mirror is not just a long-overdue biography of the unheralded Dick Ellis; it's a gripping real-life international whodunit.Trade ReviewAn important book on a figure who deserves proper historical attention. -- Giles Scott-Smith, dean, Leiden University College, The HagueThis engrossing book makes a powerful case for Ellis to be seen as a hero. -- Simon Caterson, The AustralianForensic and engrossing. The point of Fink's work is to convincingly demolish various attacks on Ellis's reputation, especially the self-serving accusations of treacherous dealings, first with the Nazis and then the Soviet Union, made by a phalanx of bitter, or simply gullible, "insiders"... it was all nonsense, if Fink is to be believed, and I think he can be... Ellis, who died in 1975, was interrogated in 1966. Nothing of any substance was found. But the mere fact that he'd been questioned spawned an orgy of bestselling "exposes", penned for profit by men who had never felt at home with truth or loyalty. Fink's comprehensive exoneration, while as complex as the subject demands, is written by a fellow who clearly values both. -- Pat Sheil, The Sydney Morning HeraldJesse Fink's passion to uncover the true story of Dick Ellis is an engaging journey through espionage in the post-World War I and World War II era. The highlight of the story for me was understanding just how much fear, deceit, and mystery were in the daily lives of British intelligence officers of the day. -- Ronald Drabkin, author of Beverly Hills Spy: The Double-Agent Flying Ace Who Infiltrated Hollywood and Helped Japan Attack Pearl HarborDick Ellis's adventures not only rival those of James Bond; he was James Bond. -- Phillip Knightley, author of The Second Oldest Profession and Philby: KGB MasterspyRemarkable story... if this book tells us anything, it is the difficulty of knowing the truth of anything in the world of the security services. -- Michael Sexton, Australian Book ReviewJesse Fink plays detective and uncovers the fascinating real story about Ellis. Highly readable. -- Jeff Popple, Canberra DailyVery interesting indeed... with some real digging for information, Fink does a very good job of showing the inadequacies of certain writers and that there is little or no real evidence that Ellis was an agent either for the Nazis or the Soviets. -- Stephen Dorril, author of MI6: Fifty Years of Special Operations and MI6: Inside the Covert World of Her Majesty's Secret Intelligence ServiceGreat tale of espionage. The Eagle in the Mirror is a successful rehabilitation of a master spy... after a relentless investigation, Jesse Fink's book does justice to Ellis. -- TALINE TER MINASSIAN, author of Most Secret Agent of Empire: Reginald Teague-Jones, Master Spy of the Great Game

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Book SynopsisIn 1933, the celebrated German economist Robert Kuczynski and his wife Berta arrived in Britain as refugees from Nazism, followed shortly afterwards by their six children. Jürgen, known to be a leading Communist, was an object of considerable concern to MI5. Ursula, codenamed Sonya, was a colonel in Russia's Red Army who had spied on the Japanese in Manchuria, while MI5 also kept extensive files on her four sisters, Brigitte, Barbara, Sabine and Renate. In Britain, Ursula controlled the spies Klaus Fuchs and Melita Norwood, without whom the Soviet atomic bomb would have been delayed for at least five years.Drawing on newly released files, Family Betrayal reveals the operations of a network at the heart of Soviet intelligence in Britain. Over seventy years of espionage activity the Kuczynskis and their associates gained access to high-ranking officials in the government, civil service and justice system. For the first time, acclaimed historian David Burke tells the whole story of one of the most accomplished spy rings in history.

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Book Synopsis‘A compelling real-life thriller, full of passion, free of writerly fuss, woven from the most intractable archival cat’s cradle imaginable.’ Simon Ings, The Telegraph The true story of a decade-long investigation that opens a new window onto Cold War espionage, CIA secrets, and the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Independent filmmaker Mary Haverstick thought she’d stumbled onto the project of a lifetime — a biopic of a little-known aviation legend whose story seemed to embody the hopeful spirit of the dawn of the space age. But after she received a mysterious warning from a government agent, Haverstick began to suspect that all was not as it seemed. What she found as she dug deeper was a darker story — a story of double identities and female spies, a tangle of intrigue that stretched from the fields of the Congo to the shores of Cuba, from the streets of Mexico City to the dark heart of the Kennedy assassination in Dallas, Texas. As Haverstick attempted to learn the truth directly from her subject in a cat-and-mouse game that stretched across a decade, she plunged deep into the CIA files of the 1950s and 60s. A Woman I Know brings vividly to life the duplicities of the Cold War intelligence game, a world where code names and doubletalk are the lingua franca of spies bent on seeking advantage by any means necessary. As Haverstick sheds light on a remarkable set of women whose high-stakes intelligence work has left its only traces in redacted files, she also discovers disturbing and shocking new clues about what really happened at Dealey Plaza in 1963. Offering new clues to the assassination and a vivid picture of women in mid-century intelligence, A Woman I Know is a gripping real-life thriller.Trade Review‘A cat-and-mouse search for a woman’s identity opens onto a shadowy corner of the assassination of John F. Kennedy … Jerrie Cobb’s fascinating life reveals her to be “a spy, an explorer, a gambler, an astronaut, an illusionist, a narcissist, and a con” — and, to say the least, a puzzle. Assassination buffs and students of spycraft will find this intriguing and endlessly enigmatic.’ * Kirkus Reviews *‘Mary Haverstick’s tale is troubling. It is made up of stories that fit together, but that end up making the whole a little opaque by dint of concealment and lies. However, the author spares no effort to unravel the truth from the lies throughout the many interviews she had with this fascinating woman … In any case, the personality of Jerrie Cobb is surprising, whimsical and romantic … We’ll leave it to the readers to discover this skein of intrigues that leads to Dallas. But anyway, this incredible lady deserved to be revealed with so much mastery and unexpected twists.’ * Livres Hebdo *‘An anxious, furious, forensic contribution to the study of the assassination of US president John F Kennedy … Haverstick is in earnest here, and has a memory like a filing system and a filing system like a vice. The least this book could possibly be is a compelling real-life thriller, full of passion, free of writerly fuss, woven from the most intractable archival cat’s cradle imaginable. That’s what you’ve got, even before you think to take it seriously — and I’ll bet the farm that you will. -- Simon Ings * The Telegraph *‘Fascinating … [Haverstick] distills a prodigious amount of research into a fast-moving story … As a fresh history of US espionage, A Woman I Know is an absorbing read.’ * The New York Times *‘Mary Haverstick … seems to have broken new ground … The seductive thing about her argument is that it ties together all the loose pieces and vexing puzzles to do with Oswald, the CIA, and Mexico City. She has avoided the many pitfalls of earlier conspiracy theories and brought forth abundant new evidence. And she did not set out to generate a conspiracy theory … She was driven unsuspecting to her conclusion.’ -- Paul Monk * The Australian *

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Book SynopsisUpdated edition of the book that got former FSB Colonel Alexander Litvinenko killed according to MI6. It unveils the first-ever fake news campaign that the FSB created to have former FSB head Vladimir Putin elected as President of Russia.Trade Review`A book that should contain a very serious health warning on the cover.' Andrew Marr, Sunday AM - `Tightly argued.' Sunday Times - Sunday Times Best Current Affairs Book - `Frightening.' Sunday Telegraph - `Disturbing reading.' Mail on Sunday - `One of the severest attacks on the present Russian leadership in print.' Tribune - `Rich in political intrigue.' Good Book Guide - `Pull-no-punches expose.' Independent - `Iconic.' Sunday Business Post (Ireland) - `Was Litvinenko murdered because of this book?' Irish Independent - `For clues as to who wanted Alexander Litvinenko, you need look no farther.' Oleg Gordievsky, The Times - `Demands our attention.' Nicholas Shakespeare, Daily Telegraph - `As vivid condemnation of the Putin regime as has yet been written.' Sunday Times - `A spy shocker.' Western Morning News - `Crucially important.' Robert Service, Professor of Russian History Oxford University, Sunday Times

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Book SynopsisHave you daydreamed of being approached to be a secret agent? Imagined yourself being propelled into the dangerous and elegant world of spies?Blending extraordinary and illuminating historical tales of the British Secret Intelligence Service from over the years with a wide range of mind-twisting puzzles, Secret Agent Brainteasers will test your mental agility to discover: Do YOU have what it takes to be a spy?Long gone are the days when the tap on the shoulder was largely a result of social connections. Now the secret intelligence services have cast their nets wider, and it''s your chance to join the ranks. Whether you have a linguistic flair, an instinct for technology, or good old common sense, pit your wits against some of the greatest minds of our time with ingenious brainteasers including secret languages, sabotage-themed brain bogglers, and hidden codes.

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Book Synopsis_____________ THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER LONGLISTED FOR THE CWA ALCS GOLD DAGGER FOR NON-FICTION _____________ 'John le Carré demystified the intelligence services; Higgins has demystified intelligence gathering itself' - Financial Times 'Uplifting . . . Riveting . . . What will fire people through these pages, gripped, is the focused, and extraordinary investigations that Bellingcat runs . . . Each runs as if the concluding chapter of a Holmesian whodunit' - Telegraph 'We Are Bellingcat is Higgins's gripping account of how he reinvented reporting for the internet age . . . A manifesto for optimism in a dark age' - Luke Harding, Observer _____________ How did a collective of self-taught internet sleuths end up solving some of the biggest crimes of our time? Bellingcat, the home-grown investigative unit, is redefining the way we think about news, politics and the digital future. Here, their founder – a high-school dropout on a kitchen laptop – tells the story of how they created a whole new category of information-gathering, galvanising citizen journalists across the globe to expose war crimes and pick apart disinformation, using just their computers. From the downing of Malaysia Flight 17 over the Ukraine to the sourcing of weapons in the Syrian Civil War and the identification of the Salisbury poisoners, We Are Bellingcat digs deep into some of Bellingcat’s most successful investigations. It explores the most cutting-edge tools for analysing data, from virtual-reality software that can build photorealistic 3D models of a crime scene, to apps that can identify exactly what time of day a photograph was taken. In our age of uncertain truths, Bellingcat is what the world needs right now – an intelligence agency by the people, for the people.Trade ReviewWe Are Bellingcat is an account of real events yet reads like a thriller, with the truth waiting to be discovered online * New Statesman *A fascinating book . . . The lesson of this deeply impressive book is that, despite the noise, the propaganda and the lies, the truth is everywhere. You just have to know how to look for it * Spectator *The gripping story of how Eliot Higgins and Bellingcat used innovative investigation techniques to expose some of the gravest state crimes of our era -- Bill Browder, bestselling author of 'Red Notice'Tells the story of the most innovative practitioners of open-source intelligence and online journalism in the world -- Anne ApplebaumIt is impossible to exaggerate the urgency and the power of their work . . . Higgins and Bellingcat are a crucial and courageous corrective -- James O'BrienIt is strange that Eliot Higgins’s We Are Bellingcat should be such an uplifting book . . . Riveting . . . It is quite a story . . . Spare, elegant . . .What will fire people through these pages, gripped, is the focused, and extraordinary, investigations that Bellingcat runs . . . Each runs as if the concluding chapter of a Holmesian whodunit, in which the scientific sleuth explains in crystalline manner his inescapable conclusions . . . Ultimately, the book consoles, reassuring readers that in a world where everyone has an opinion and objectivity feels extinct, the tools to prove and verify have never been more accessible * Telegraph *Bellingcat has pioneered a new field of investigation that has proven key to understanding the clandestine criminal actions of Russia and other nations both at home and abroad. They have exposed numerous war crimes, human rights violations, and much more . . . If there were a Nobel Prize in uncovering war crimes, Bellingcat would receive it. No wonder authoritarian and criminal regimes hate them so -- Toomas Hendrik Ilves, former President of EstoniaJohn le Carré demystified the intelligence services; Higgins has demystified intelligence gathering itself . . . Higgins is one of the internet’s good guys — a champion of truth in a post-truth world’ * Financial Times *The blogger who tracks Syrian rockets from his sofa * Daily Telegraph *Taking on the Krelim from his couch … Eliot Higgins and Bellingcat are fighting Vladimir Putin and his ilk, using little more than computers and smartphones * Foreign Policy *‘We Are Bellingcat is Higgins’s gripping account of how he reinvented reporting for the internet age . . . Bellingcat’s rise reveals something new about our digitally mediated times: spying is no longer the preserve of nation states – anyone with an internet connection can do it’ * Observer *

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Book SynopsisIn 1942, Lieutenant-Commander Ian Fleming was personal assistant to the Director of Naval Intelligence - the dynamic figure behind James Bond''s fictional chief, ''M''. Here, Fleming had a brilliant idea: why not set up a unit of authorised looters, men who would go in hard with the front-line troops and steal enemy intelligence?Known as ''30 Assault Unit'', they took part in the major campaigns of the Second World War, landing on the Normandy beaches and helping to liberate Paris. 30AU''s final amazing coup was to seize the entire archives of the German Navy - thirty tons of documents. Ian Fleming flew out in person to get the loot back to Britain, where it was combed for evidence to use in the Nuremburg trials. In this gripping and highly enjoyable book, Nicholas Rankin, author of the best-selling Churchill''s Wizards, puts 30 Assault Unit''s fascinating story in a strategic and intelligence context. He also argues that Ian Fleming''s Second Wor

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Book Synopsis''Sensationally good ... A riveting story, the real-life spooks and spies far more compelling than anything you will see on the screen ... history doesn''t come more fascinating than this'' Evening StandardFor over 100 years, the agents of MI5 have defended Britain against enemy subversion. Their work has remained shrouded in secrecy - until now.This first-ever authorized account reveals the British Security Service as never before: its inner workings, its clandestine operations, its failures and its triumphs. ''Definitive and fascinating ... whether reporting on Hitler in the 1930s, the Double-Cross System of the second world war, Zionist terrorism, the atom spies, the Cambridge spies, the so-called Wilson plot or the 1988 shooting of the IRA bombers in Gibraltar, this book is essential reading'' Alan Judd, Spectator''The British Secret Service has opened its archives - and even ''insiders'' may be in for a surprise ... magisterial ... extremely readable'' Oleg Gordievsky, The Times''Compelling ... a feast'' Max Hastings, Sunday Times''A superb account ... He has captured every important detail of the Service ... unlikely to be surpassed for another 100 years'' Simon Heffer, Daily Telegraph

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Book SynopsisAs we become ever-more aware of how our governments eavesdrop on our conversations, here is a gripping exploration of this unknown realm of the British secret service: Government Communication Headquarters (GCHQ).GCHQ is the successor to the famous Bletchley Park wartime code-breaking organisation and is the largest and most secretive intelligence organisation in the country. During the war, it commanded more staff than MI5 and MI6 combined and has produced a number of intelligence triumphs, as well as some notable failures. Since the end of the Cold War, it has played a pivotal role in shaping Britain''s secret state. Still, we know almost nothing about it.In this ground-breaking new book, Richard Aldrich traces GCHQ''s evolvement from a wartime code-breaking operation based in the Bedfordshire countryside, staffed by eccentric crossword puzzlers, to one of the world leading espionage organisations. It is packed full of dramatic spy stories that shed fresh light on Britain''s role in Trade Review‘Thoroughly engaging’ Daily Telegraph ‘Skilfully weaves together the personal, political, military and technological dimensions of electronic espionage’ Economist ‘Aldrich packs in vast amounts of information, while managing to remain very readable. He paints the broad picture, but also introduces fascinating detail.’ Literary Review ‘Richard J. Aldrich is an outstanding analyst and historian of intelligence and he tells this story well…an important book, which will make readers think uncomfortably not only about the state’s power to monitor our lives, but also the appalling vulnerability of every society in thrall to communications technology as we are.’ Max Hastings, Sunday Times ‘This is a sober and valuable work of scholarship, which is as reliable as anything ever is in the twilight world of intelligence-gathering. Yet there is nothing dry about it. Aldrich knows how to write for a wider audience, while avoiding the speculations, inventions, sensationalism and sheer silliness of so much modern work on the subject’ Spectator

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Book Synopsis1st November 2006: Alexander Litvinenko is brazenly poisoned in central London. Twenty-two days later he dies, killed from the inside by Polonium - a rare, lethal and highly radioactive substance. His crime? He had made some powerful enemies in Russia. This is the inside story of the life and death of Litvinenko and of Russia's new cold war with the west. Harding traces the journey of the nuclear poison across London, from hotel room to nightclub, assassin to victim. It's a deadly trail that leads back to Vladimir Putin, and to a regime exposed by the Panama Papers. Luke Harding's investigation into the death of Alexander Litvinenko, A Very Expensive Poison, may also help us shed light on the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury. From the author of the No.1 New York Times bestseller Collusion.

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Book Synopsis''A delicious, gossipy and thoroughly engaging romp ... heartily recommended.'' Tim Tate, author ofHitler''s British TraitorsandThe Spy Who Was Left Out in the Cold ''A captivating page-turner ...'' Helen Fry, author ofWomen in IntelligenceAmbassador''s daughter, Nazi love interest, Soviet spy, FBI most wanted. Accompanying her parents to Berlin in the 1930s, Martha Dodd knew almost nothing about Adolf Hitler or the Nazis. Yet almost overnight, she stepped into the spotlight, and found herself at the over-heated centre of Hitler''s ''New Germany'', befriending and dating several high-ranking Nazis, including the head of the Gestapo. An affair with a dashing Russian diplomat saw her recruited as a spy, and so began a long and tumultuous career in both Berlin and America, including attempts to infiltrate First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt''s inner circle and playing a key role in Henry Wallace''s disastrous 1948 presidential campaign. Betrayed by a Hollywood-hustler-turned-double-agent, Martha spent years under deep FBI surveillance - escaping twice - and went to ground in Cold War Prague, sad, lonely, rich and bored, living out her final decades in a CommunistSunset Boulevard. Largely forgotten, Martha Dodd began to emerge as an iconic historical figure in the early 2000s. While her scandalous behaviour and pro-Soviet leanings were never much in dispute, the actual matter of her guilt remained unresolved. Now, using recently released KGB archived information and FBI files, author and journalist Brendan McNally sets the record straight inTraitor''s Odyssey, telling the full epic tale of Martha Dodd''s life for the first time, casting her in a new and bright light.

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Book SynopsisIt has been called the political crime of the century: This book from Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post reporter Greg Miller uncovers for the first time the truth behind the Kremlin's attempt to put Trump in the White House, how they did it, when and why.This exclusive book uncovers the truth behind the Kremlin's interference in Donald Trump's win and Trump's steadfast allegiance to Vladimir Putin. Drawing on interviews with hundreds of people in Trump's inner circle, the intelligence communities, foreign officials, and confidential documents.The Apprentice offers exclusive information about:the hacking of the Democrats by Russian intelligence;Russian hijacking of Facebook and Twitter;National Security Adviser Michael Flynn's hidden communications with the Russians;the attempt by Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, to create a secret backchannel to Moscow using Russian diplomatic facilities;the firing of FBI Director James Comey;the appointment of Mueller and the investigation thatTrade Review‘The most comprehensive account of the Trump-Russia story to date… Miller trots expertly through this troubling tale’ Sunday Times ‘[A] lucid and startling account… the clearest account yet of what Russia actually did’ The Times

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Book SynopsisThe true story of the Gestapo - the Nazis' secret police force and the most feared instrument of political terror in the Third Reich.Trade Reviewthis book not only offers a detailed study of the 12-year Gestapo reign of terror, but offers disturbing evidence about how the Gestapo assimilated back into German society * LSE Review of Books *Darms and Stolle offer their readers a succinct introduction to the subject while also managing to deconstruct a great number of myths still surrounding the Gestapo in public memory. * Irish Times *A welcome introduction * Military History Monthly *The Gestapo: Power and Terror in the Third Reich draws on all the latest scholarship to offer readers a compelling overview of what the organization was, what it did, and how it changed over time. Like many other penetrating explorations of the Nazi killing machine, it raises some very disturbing and ultimately unanswerable questions about the nature evil and cruelty in the world. A fine book all around, but not a book for the faint of heart. * The Daily Beast *Deeply researched and informative. * David Cesarani, Literary Review *An excellent short introduction to one of the most complex issues in the history of the Third Reich. * Richard Overy, author of The Third Reich: A Chronicle *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1: Foundation and Early Years 2: Development of the Organization 3: Gestapo Collaborators 4: How the Gestapo Worked 5: Persecution in the Reich 6: The Gestapo in Europe 7: The Gestapo after 1945 Conclusion: what is left of the Gestapo? Notes Selected Further Reading Index

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Book SynopsisTHE INSIDE ACCOUNT OF THE EVENTS DOCUMENTED IN LAURA POITRAS''S CITIZENFOUR Glenn Greenwald''s No Place to Hide is the story of one of the greatest national security leaks in US history.In June 2013, reporter and political commentator Glenn Greenwald published a series of reports in the Guardian which rocked the world.The reports revealed shocking truths about the extent to which the National Security Agency had been gathering information about US citizens and intercepting communication worldwide, and were based on documents leaked by former National Security Agency employee Edward Snowden to Greenwald.Including new revelations from documents entrusted to Greenwald by Snowden, this essential book tells the story of Snowden and the NSA and examines the far-reaching consequences of the government''s surveillance program, both in the US and abroad.''The first thing I do when I turn on the computer in the morningTrade ReviewA Pulitzer in the bag, Hollywood knocking on the door and a newfound status as one of the world's most celebrated journalists, Greenwald has pursued the [Snowden] story with passion. Gripping: Jason Bourne meets The Social Network * Financial Times *To put it simply, Greenwald has had one hell of a dizzying run, at the white-hot centre of the media universe as the most reliable source for NSA surveillance scoops * GQ *Compelling, powerful, shocking, important * Observer *The inside account. Action-packed, engrossing and polemical * Daily Telegraph *Persuasive, thrilling and necessary * Globe and Mail *Impassioned * The New York Times *Pulse-pounding * Wired *In Glenn Greenwald, Edward Snowden found a perfect match. If you want to get a handle on what was at stake when Snowden downloaded the government's most precious secrets onto a thumb drive, this book is your primer * Slate *Rings with authority * Chicago Tribune *The story of Edward Snowden is remarkable. Has all the makings of a thriller. Greenwald provides an excellent overview, putting the pieces together in a way that daily journalism cannot * Economist *At times, this account by Greenwald of how he landed one of the biggest scoops of the century feels like it has come straight out of the pages of a Robert Ludlum thriller * Sunday Times *Spectacular. Dedicated, fearless journalism * Spiegel (Germany) *Between a spy thriller and analysis . . . an impassioned book * Süddeutsche Zeitung (Germany) *Rewarding. Some passages read like a Tom Clancy CIA thriller * General Anzeiger (Germany) *An indispensable book for anyone who cares about the future of privacy, not just in the United States but throughout the world * National Post (Canada) *Gripping. Not only does [No Place to Hide] confirm what many have suspected - that surveillance is happening - but it also makes clear that it's happening on an almost unimaginably vast scale * Guardian *A powerful and persuasive case for the duty to defend our fast-disappearing privacy -- Naomi Klein * Guardian (Books of the Year) *The story of a real conspiracy -- Nicholas Blincoe * Daily Telegraph *An important first-hand account of the Snowden affair -- Rebecca Rose * Financial Times *

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Book SynopsisA gripping history charting the flow of intelligence from the CIA to the president in the twentieth century

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Book SynopsisThe secret history of MI6 - from the Cold War to the present day.The British Secret Service has been cloaked in secrecy and shrouded in myth since it was created a hundred years ago. Our understanding of what it is to be a spy has been largely defined by the fictional worlds of James Bond and John le Carre. THE ART OF BETRAYAL provides a unique and unprecedented insight into this secret world and the reality that lies behind the fiction. It tells the story of how the secret service has changed since the end of World War II and by focusing on the people and the relationships that lie at the heart of espionage, revealing the danger, the drama, the intrigue, the moral ambiguities and the occasional comedy that comes with working for British intelligence. From the defining period of the early Cold War through to the modern day, MI6 has undergone a dramatic transformation from a gung-ho, amateurish organisation to its modern, no less controversial, incarnation. Gordon Corera reveals the triumphs and disasters along the way.The grand dramas of the Cold War and after - the rise and fall of the Berlin Wall, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the 11 September 2001 attacks and the Iraq war - are the backdrop for the human stories of the individual spies whose stories form the centrepiece of the narrative. But some of the individuals featured here, in turn, helped shape the course of those events. Corera draws on the first-hand accounts of those who have spied, lied and in some cases nearly died in service of the state. They range from the spymasters to the agents they ran to their sworn enemies. Many of these accounts are based on exclusive interviews and access. From Afghanistan to the Congo, from Moscow to the back streets of London, these are the voices of those who have worked on the front line of Britain''s secret wars. And the truth is often more remarkable than the fiction.Trade ReviewHis analysis is shrewd, his judgement sound...(the book's) strength is to present stories of the secret service's successes and failures within the political and strategic context of the times. -- Adam Sisman * THE SUNDAY TIMES *THE ART OF BETRAYAL tells the history of MI6 in the words of real spies. -- THE MAIL ON SUNDAYA refreshing...(and) compelling read. -- Christopher Silvester * THE DAILY EXPRESS *Corera, the BBC's security correspondent, has enjoyed privileged access to key spy players from the past few decades and, writing in an engaging style, he picks up the story of the MI6 at the point where the "official" history grinds to a halt after the Second World War. -- Annie Machon * THE SUNDAY EXPRESS *As a good journalist and a reader of spy novels, Corera presents his material as fast-paced stories, from the covert diplomacy of the Cold War to recent and current security concerns in Afghanistan and the Middle East, and he humanises the grand dramas of a duplicitous trade. -- Iain Finlayson * THE TIMES *Highly readable and well-researched account of the Service...Let's hope the current generation of spooks has learnt from past mistakes. -- Con Coughlin * THE DAILY TELEGRAPH *Corera provides a unique insight into how British intelligence has changed since the Second World War and how our spymasters reacted to major crises such as the September 11 attacks and the Iraq war. A fascinating read. * THE PEOPLE *Superb new history of British intelligence * THE EVENING STANDARD *The best post-1949 account of British intelligence I have read...this is as good as it gets. And it's a good read. * THE SPECTATOR *This book will intrigue anyone with a taste for adventure and an interest in the moral dilemmas of loyalty and disloyalty. * COUNTRY LIFE *His readable, breezy book's strength is to present the service's successes and failures within the political context of the times. -- Adam Sisman * THE SUNDAY TIMES CULTURE *BBC security correspondant Gordon Corera's illuminating postwar history of Britain's secret intelligence services is told with the brio of a thriller and a good deal more clarity. * THE FINANCIAL TIMES *An absorbing and often exhilarating account. * THE SUNDAY BUSINESS POST *This fast-moving account by the BBC's Security Correspondent reveals that the true story of Britain's overseas intelligence service is as gripping as any novel... Corera works wonders in untangling the murky, convoluted doings of the organisation through the decades. * THE INDEPENDENT *

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Book SynopsisThe true story of the Englishman allegedly freed from a French prison after meeting John Amery, the treacherous son of a Cabinet minister, and sent back to Britain to spy - only to be caught, prosecuted and hanged for being a traitor to his country. But this 'spy' always claimed to have simply lied in order to come home. Was he telling the truth?Trade Review'A model of assiduous research. No stone left unturned to reach the truth about a squalid, but not unimportant, case of wartime treachery and disloyalty, mixed in with very human frailty and tragic misjudgement.' -- Nigel West

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Book SynopsisWhile many of President Xia Jinping's increasingly aggressive foreign policies, manifested by expansion into the South China Sea, trade confrontation with Australia, and political suppression in Hong Kong, have become obvious, there has been a covert dimension that has gone largely unreported outside the Allied intelligence community. Beijing's Ministry of State Security, or MSS, has increasingly shifted its priorities to hostile penetration of the CIA. That this is the case has been demonstrated by the recent cases of individuals such as Glenn Shriver, Jerry Chun Shing Lee, Ron Rockwell Hansen, Kevin Mallory, Dickson Yeo, and Alexander Yuk Ching Ma. Of these, Shriver, an American student studying in China, became, as the FBI itself points out, a target of Chinese intelligence services and crossed the line when he agreed to participate in espionage-type activity'. For his actions, in 2019 Ron Rockwell Hansen, a former Defense Intelligence Agency officer, pleaded guilty to attemptin

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Book SynopsisExamination of how Marian Rejewski changed the course of cryptology by using mathematics and then passed a baton to Alan Turing.

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Book SynopsisDuring WW2 there was a rumour that German spies were landing by parachute in Britain, dressed as nuns...''Spy-masterful storytelling'' Sunday Post''Delightfully old-fashioned and prudent of prose, McCall Smith unspools his tales'' Daily Mail''[Adds] another treasure to McCall Smith''s already glittering library'' New York Journal of BooksConradin Muller was an unusual spy. He was recruited in Hamburg in June 1943, much against his will, and sent on his first, and only, mission in late September that year. He failed to send a single report back to Germany, and when the War came to an end in May 1945, he fell to his knees and wept with relief.From a highly reluctant German spy who is drawn to an East Anglian nunnery as his only means of escape, to the strange tale of one of the Cambridge spy ring''s adventures with a Russian dwarf, these are Alexander McCall Smith''s intriguingTrade ReviewSpy-masterful storytelling * Sunday Post *Marvellous... shows off Alexander McCall Smith's accomplishment as a storyteller as its very best * Undiscovered Scotland *There's nothing not to like about Alexander McCall Smith when you read his latest collection of six short stories on the business of spying... These are a half dozen beautifully shaped, delicious morsels, which I devoured even faster than McCall Smith could write them... full of character and detail * Australian *Massively entertaining and thought-provoking * Booklist (starred review) *Based on extensive research and with a fine grip on the slippery nature of the world of espionage, these underhand dealings range from Algeria in 1924 to a modern-day clerical cabal in the Vatican... Delightfully old-fashioned and prudent of prose, McCall Smith unspools his tales * Daily Mail *Taken together, the two parts echo each other. Each story provides a unique cast of characters and distinctly different plots, each offers a gentle portrait of people and society. And each is guided by the mastery of a consummate storyteller, offering another treasure to his already glittering library * New York Journal of Books *

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Book SynopsisHUNTER KILLER: a submarine designed to pursue and attack enemy submarines and surface ships using torpedoes.Trade Reviewan exciting, thought-provoking and very instructive book, most strongly recommended * SCUTTLEBUTT *Ballantyne has written an excellent book, presenting many exciting and never before told stories from British submariners who served during the Cold War...it is surely one of the most enthralling of Cold War submarine thrillers. -- Cem Devrim Yaylali * WARSHIPS INTERNATIONAL FLEET REVIEW *Ballantyne has persuaded former submarine captains to share not only their stories about life aboard what German wartime submariners called "iron coffins", but also some of the largely unknown details of their deployment, including their crucial role in the Cold War. * DAILY EXPRESS *I've found no other book that delves so comprehensively into the underwater battle space during those tense years. -- Julian Stockwin * Author of The Kydd Series *

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Book SynopsisJune 1940. Britain is Europe''s final bastion of freedom - and Hitler''s next target. But not everyone fears a Nazi invasion. In factories, offices and suburban homes are men and women determined to do all they can to hasten it.Throughout the Second World War, Britain''s defence against the enemy within was Eric Roberts, a former bank clerk from Epsom. Equipped with an extraordinary ability to make people trust him, he was recruited into the shadowy world of espionage by the great spymaster Maxwell Knight. Roberts penetrated first the Communist Party and then the British Union of Fascists, before playing his greatest role for MI5 - as Hitler''s man in London. Codenamed Jack King, he single-handedly built a network of hundreds of British Nazi sympathisers, with many passing secrets to him in the mistaken belief that he was a Gestapo officer. Operation Fifth Column, run by a brilliant woman scientist and a Jewish aristocrat with a sideline in bomb disposal, was kept soTrade ReviewEye-opening from start to finish. Pacy, original and frequently chilling, Hutton offers a fascinating new take on the story of the Home Front -- Henry Hemming, author of M: Maxwell Knight, MI5's Greatest SpymasterA gripping book by a talented new spy-writer which illuminates a shocking episode in our wartime history. Fans of Ben Macintyre's books will love this -- Tim ShipmanRobert Hutton's deeply researched, often astounding book describes how a loose network of homegrown fascists plotted to undermine wartime Britain, and explains the ingenious way MI5 attempted to neutralise them ... Hutton includes transcripts of eavesdropped conversations with these fanatics that would make your hair stand on end -- Anthony Quinn * Guardian *Robert Hutton has written a well-researched, highly readable account of Roberts's strange undercover life -- Ben Macintyre * The Times *Hutton's brilliant detective work uncovers a fascinating, and hitherto untold, story of spies, eccentrics and fanatics -- Josh Ireland, author of The Traitors: A True Story of Blood, Betrayal and DeceitI have never encountered a stranger or more touching picture of real-life treachery: the exciting and the humdrum, the venality and the idealism, the incompetence and the expertise ... and all the while the cocktail of high-octane subversion and the low-octane muddle of workaday life. Robert Hutton is an ace researcher but, more than that, a keen and kindly student of real people -- Matthew ParrisWe think we know the story of the Second World War, in which Britons were unambiguously on the side of good against evil. But along comes Robert Hutton to show us that that narrative, while comforting, isn't exactly true. We had our own fascists here, eager to do all they could to help the Nazi enemy. In this surprising, even shocking book Hutton tells the extraordinary story of Hitler's British friends - and the unlikely man who did so much to stop them. It's a truly compelling tale -- Jonathan FreedlandAt a time when antisemitism is once more rearing its ugly head, this fascinating and well-researched book gives us a salutary reminder that Britain is not immune to homegrown fascist treachery -- Tony RobinsonA great book -- John Crace * Guardian *In his absorbing biography Agent Jack, an unassuming Cornish bank clerk, Roberts was an unlikely hero, who set up a fifth column, posing as Jack King, a Gestapo handler, to control domestic subversives. This is a story of safe houses, drops and taped conversations, which amply illustrates Roberts' extraordinary courage -- Terry Philpot * THE TABLET *

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Book SynopsisThe First Counterspy is the pulse-quickening and traumatic story of spy, counterspy, and an American family unwittingly caught in its web. Until this case, the FBI had never recruited civilian counterspies to catch a Soviet agent. The first two were Larry Haas, a leading aviation engineer at Bell Aviation, and Leona Franey, head librarian at Bell's technical library. The FBI pitted them against a Soviet agent, Andrei Ivanovich Schevchenko, operating legally as one of the highest Soviet officials in the United States during WWII, and illegally as the secret head of a wide-ranging spy network hidden within the American aviation industry. The First Counterspy lays out this exciting story and, later, the consequences of Schevchenko's deadly threat of vengeance against Haas, the counterspy who betrayed him. The threat was uttered in a mere fourteen seconds but generated lethal consequences that long outlived Schevchenko, tormented Larry Haas, killed his wife, and subjected his dau

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Book SynopsisThe Cold War, which lasted from the end of the Second World War to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, was fought mostly in the shadows, with the superpowers manoeuvring for strategic advantage in an anticipated global armed confrontation that thankfully never happened. How did the intelligence organisations of the major world powers go about their work? What advantages were they looking for? Did they succeed? By examining some of the famous, infamous, or lesser-known intelligence operations from both sides of the Iron Curtain, this book explains how the superpowers went about gathering intelligence on each other, examines the type of information they were looking for, what they did with it, and how it enabled them to stay one step ahead of the opposition. Possession of these secrets threatened a Third World War, but also helped keep the peace for more than four decades. With access to previously unreleased material, the author explores how the intelligence organisations, both civilian and military, took advantage of rapid developments in technology, and how they adapted to the changing threat. The book describes the epic scale of some of these operations, the surprising connections between them, and how they contributed to a complex multi-layered intelligence jigsaw which drove decision making at the highest level. On top of all the tradecraft, gadgets and cloak and dagger', the book also looks at the human side of espionage: their ideologies and motivations, the winners and losers, and the immense courage and frequent betrayal of those whose lives were touched by the Secrets of the Cold War.

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Book SynopsisThis book is new in every aspect and not only because neither the official history nor an unofficial history of the KGB, and its many predecessors and successors, exists in any language. In this volume, the author deals with the origins of the KGB from the Tsarist Okhrana (the first Russians secret political police) to the OGPU, Joint State Political Directorate, one of the KGB predecessors between 1923 and 1934\. Based on documents from the Russian archives, the author clearly demonstrates that the Cheka and GPU/OPGU were initially created to defend the revolution and not for espionage. The Okhrana operated in both the Russian Empire and abroad against the revolutionaries and most of its operations, presented in this book, are little known. The same is the case with regards to the period after the Cheka was established in December 1917 until ten years later when Trotsky was expelled from the Communist Party and exiled, and Stalin rose to power. For the long period after the Revolution and up to the Second World War (and, indeed, beyond until the death of Stalin) the Cheka's main weapon was terror to create a general climate of fear in a population. In the book, the work of the Cheka and its successors against the enemies of the revolution is paralleled with British and American operations against the Soviets inside and outside of Russia. For the first time the creation of the Communist International (Comintern) is shown as an alternative Soviet espionage organization for wide-scale foreign propaganda and subversion operations based on the new revelations from the Soviet archives Here, the early Soviet intelligence operations in several countries are presented and analysed for the first time, as are raids on the Soviet missions abroad. The Bolshevik smuggling of the Russian imperial treasures is shown based on the latest available archival sources with misinterpretations and sometimes false interpretations in existing literature revised. After the Bolshevik revolution, Mansfield Smith-Cumming, the first chief of SIS, undertook to set up an entirely new Secret Service organization in Russia'. During those first ten years, events would develop as a non-stop struggle between British intelligence, within Russia and abroad, and the Cheka, later GPU/OGPU. Before several show spy trials' in 1927, British intelligence networks successfully operated in Russia later moving to the Baltic capitals, Finland and Sweden while young Soviet intelligence officers moved to London, Paris, Berlin and Constantinople. Many of those operations, from both sides, are presented in the book for the first time in this ground-breaking study of the dark world of the KGB.

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Book SynopsisBy the end of January 1945, it was clear to Germany that the war was lost. The Third Reich was in freefall, and its leaders, apart from those clustered around Hitler in his Berlin bunker, sought to abscond before they were besieged. But they wanted to take their wealth with them.Their escape routes were diverse: Sweden and Switzerland boasted proximity, banking, and industrial closeness, while Spain and Portugal offered an inviting Atlantic coastline and shipping routes to South America. And in various ways, each of these so-called neutral nations welcomed the Nazi escapees, along with the clandestine wealth they carried.Cashing Out tells the riveting history of the race to intercept the stolen assets before they disappeared, and before the will to punish Germany was replaced by the political considerations of the fast-approaching Cold War. Bestselling author Neill Lochery here brilliantly recounts the flight of the Nazi-looted riches-the last great escape of World War II-and the Allied quest for justice.

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Book SynopsisA vastly entertaining and unique history of the interaction between spying and showbiz, from the Elizabethan age to the Cold War and beyond.'A treasure trove of human ingenuity' The TimesWritten by two experts in their fields, Stars and Spies is the first history of the extraordinary connections between the intelligence services and show business.We travel back to the golden age of theatre and intelligence in the reign of Elizabeth I. We meet the writers, actors and entertainers drawn into espionage in the Restoration, the Ancien Régime and Civil War America. And we witness the entry of spying into mainstream popular culture throughout the twentieth century and beyond - from the adventures of James Bond to the thrillers of John le Carré and long-running TV series such as The Americans.'Thoroughly entertaining' Spectator'Perfect...read as you settle into James Bond on Christmas afternoon.' Daily TelegraphTrade ReviewA treasure trove of human ingenuity, and testament to our need to tell and believe stories, it deserves a front-row seat at any budding Bond's bedside -- James Owen * The Times *Andrew and Green have carried out a huge amount of impeccable research, which they relay with infectious gusto... I found it extremely difficult to put this book down -- Jake Kerridge * Daily Telegraph *Anyone who loves a good spy story will find and enjoy hundreds of them here * Economist *[An] enjoyable and well-informed survey...stars and spies will forever be inextricably linked -- Alan Judd * Oldie *Perfect...read as you settle into James Bond on Christmas afternoon. -- Simon Heffer * Daily Telegraph, *Books of the Year* *

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Book SynopsisIn the annals of espionage, one name towers above all others: that of H. A. R. "Kim" Philby, the ringleader of the legendary Cambridge spies. A member of the British establishment, Philby joined the Secret Intelligence Service in 1940, rose to the head of Soviet counterintelligence, and, as M16's liaison with the CIA and the FBI, betrayed every secret of Allied operations to the Russians, fatally compromising covert actions to roll back the Iron Curtain in the early years of the Cold War. Written from Moscow in 1967, My Silent War shook the world and introduced a new archetype in fiction: the unrepentant spy. It inspired John Le Carre's Smiley novels and the later espionage novels of Graham Greene. Kim Philby was history's most successful spy. He was also an exceptional writer who gave us the great iconic story of the Cold War and revolutionized, in the process, the art of espionage writing.Trade ReviewThe best true spy story ... a superbly cynical combination of truth, half-truth, falsehood and propaganda * Ben Macintyre, The Times *...teeming with real-life tales of intrigue and espionage * Imperial War Museum *A carefully crafted memoir of a carefully crafted life is a chilling portrayal of a man whose greatest loyalty was to his craft * The Revisionist *

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Book SynopsisWhat does it feel like to live a lie - and betray your country? A gripping history of secret intelligenceFrom France’s brilliant female impersonator and secret agent to the infamous Cambridge spy ring, John Hughes-Wilson offers a nerve-shredding insight into the work – and treacheries – of the spies who shaped history. From WWII’s cryptography to Elizabeth I and the hunt for Osama bin Laden, the hidden hand of intelligence is exposed behind every critical decision.Written by an ex-intelligence officer, The Puppet Masters lifts the veil on the role of spying and intelligence in the great events of history with thrilling clarity. Perfect for readers of Ben Macintyre. ‘John Hughes-Wilson has a lively pen and an eye for a good anecdote… an enjoyable romp through world history’ The Sunday Telegraph‘A powerful book… there should be a well-thumbed copy of this book on every general’s bedside table…’ The Spectator

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Book SynopsisThe dramatic story of a man who stood at the center of British intelligence operations, the ultimate spymaster of World War II: Thomas KendrickTrade Review“A remarkable piece of historical detective work. . . . Now, thanks to this groundbreaking book, the result of years of meticulous research and expert analysis, Kendrick’s role as one of the great spymasters of the twentieth century can be revealed.”—Saul David, Daily Telegraph“Fry . . . has done a remarkable job of reconstructing the life, networks and secrets of a man who spent most of his existence hiding them.”—James Owen, Times (UK)“Fry’s achievement in Spymaster is a considerable one. She tells a remarkable story, exploring both the private and the public life of Thomas Kendrick.”—Ahron Bregman, Jewish Chronicle“Detailed and assiduously researched. . . . A priceless addition to interwar intelligence history.”—Henry Hemming, BBC History Magazine“Fry’s endeavour itself in attempting to write about such an obscure man who lived a highly secretive life deserves credit since such a project is a daring one due to the vigorous research demands and efforts such a project necessitates.”—Bailey Schwab, Intelligence and National Security“Helen’s style of writing and choice of words is refreshing and a delight to read. Her research has been extremely meticulous and has undoubtedly resulted in one of MI6’s most successful intelligence officers.”—Fred Judge, Intelligence Corps historian“Riveting and meticulously researched. Fry explores the darkest recesses of global intelligence services during a most tumultuous and formative period. Raising questions that challenge established truths, Spymaster will intrigue and educate even the most informed minds.“—Charlotte Philby, author of A Double Life“Thomas Kendrick was a game changer, an original thinker and the ultimate spymaster. Thank you, Helen Fry, for bringing him back to life. This is a must read for everyone interested in British intelligence: a history that combines pace, humanity and forensic detail to build a picture of an astonishing career and individual.”—Tessa Dunlop, author of The Bletchley Girls“Rescues from history the untold but important story of the MI6 officer who helped save so many people from the clutches of the Nazis in late 1930s Vienna. A really fascinating read.”—Stephen Dorril, author MI6: Fifty Years of Special Operations“A fascinating account of a very singular life. . . . [T]he remarkable story of a rather obscure intelligence professional who had quite an impact on modern history.”—Nigel West, author of Spy Swap: The Humiliation of Russia’s Intelligence Services“You probably haven’t heard of Thomas Kendrick—and that’s the way he’d have wanted it—but his story deserves to be told. Helen Fry’s book uncovers the amazing hidden story of an espionage pioneer who risked the wrath of the Gestapo to rescue Austrian Jews.”—Robert Hutton, author of Agent Jack: The True Story of MI5’s Secret Nazi Hunter

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