The Secret History of MI6, 1909-1949 (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780143119999)

The authorized history of the world's oldest and most storied foreign intelligence service, drawing extensively on hitherto secret documents

Britain's Special Intelligence Service, commonly called MI6, is not only the oldest and most storied foreign intelligence unit in the world - it is also the only one to open its archives to an outside researcher. The result, in this authorized history, is an unprecedented and revelatory look at an organization that essentially created, over the course of two world wars, the modern craft of spying. Here are the true stories that inspired Ian Fleming's James Bond's novels and John le Carré George Smiley novels. Examining innovations from invisible ink and industrial-scale cryptography to dramatic setbacks like the Nazi sting operations to bag British operatives, this groundbreaking history is as engrossing as any thriller - and much more revealing.

"Perhaps the most authentic account one will ever read about how intelligence really works." -The Washington Times

Author: Keith Jeffery
ISBN-10: 0143119990
ISBN-13: 9780143119999
Publisher: Penguin Books
Language: English
Published: 09/27/2011
Pages: 832
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.80lbs
Size: 8.40h x 5.50w x 2.00d