Overview

A gripping history of the Security Service and its covert surveillance on British writers and intellectuals in the twentieth century In the popular imagination, MI5--or the Security Service--is know chiefly as the branch of the British state responsible for chasing down those who pose a threat to the country's national security, from Nazi fifth columnists during the Second World War to Soviet spies during the Cold War and today's domestic extremists. Yet, aided by the release of official documents to the National Archives, David Caute argues in this radical and revelatory history of the Security Service that suspicion often fell on those who posed no threat to national security. Instead, this other history of MI5, ignored in official accounts, was often fueled by the political prejudices of MI5's personnel and involved a huge program of surveillance against anyone who dared question the status quo. Caute, a prominent historian and expert on the history of the Cold War, tells the story of the massive state operation to track the activities of a range of journalists, academics, scientists, filmmakers, writers, and others who, during the twentieth century, the Security Service perceived as a threat to the national interest. Those who were tracked include such prominent figures as Kingsley Amis, George Orwell, Doris Lessing, John Berger, Benjamin Britten, Eric Hobsbawm, Michael Foot, Harriet Harman, and others.

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9798200969050

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Reviews

The author's wit and biting analysis render this a most readable study. -- Kirkus Reviews on Isaac amd Isaiah

Author Information

David Caute, Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and of the Royal Historical Society, is a quondam Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. His recent books include Isaac and Isaiah: The Covert Punishment of a Cold War Heretic; Politics and the Novel during the Cold War; and The Dancer Defects: The Struggle for Cultural Supremacy during the Cold War. Dennis Kleinman has been narrating audiobooks since 2013 and has at least forty titles to his credit. His career began with a biography of a British general, Sir David Fraser, and then transitioned into a series of period romance audiobooks, which opened up his creative approaches and choices to the characters that he brought to life. His body of work includes drama and mysteries, coupled with fan fiction and adventure. Adding to his resume is a three-part audiobook series covering espionage across Eastern Europe, in the Birth of an Assassin series, as well as the in-depth exploration of a family's heritage in Out of The Shoebox. Dennis worked with Douglass Davies on his novel Steinburg-a work about international political intrigue, which allowed Dennis the artistic freedom to explore his own European origins and early family history. Working with Ed Renehan of New Street Nautical Audio, Dennis has narrated half a dozen nautical themed audiobooks, including Desperate Voyage, the account of Donald Crowhurst's attempt to sail in a round the world yacht race in 1968. Dennis has worked on South African themed works that include The Lion Seeker, about early Jewish settlement and emigration to South Africa. He narrated and brought many characters to life in The Zebra Affaire, set in 1976 apartheid South Africa. Dennis adopts the various South African accents in an authentic, meaningful, and sensitive way, allowing his own South African roots to flow through the narration. Dennis was born in Cape Town, South Africa, and emigrated to the United States in 1980 after completing his Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Cape Town. He lives with his family in Los Angeles.

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