Overview

Gordon Thomas, a leading expert on the intelligence community, returns in Secret Wars to provide the definitive history of the famed MI5 and MI6. Thomas's wide-sweeping history of two of the oldest and most powerful agencies in the world chronicles a century of both triumphs and failures. He recounts the roles that British intelligence played in the Allied victory in World War II; the postwar treachery of Great Britain's own agents; the defection of Soviet agents and the intricate process of ""handling"" them; the cooperation between the British and Americans in the search for Osama bin Laden; and the ways in which MI5 and MI6 have fought biological warfare espionage and space terrorism. Based on prodigious research and interviews with significant players from inside the British intelligence community, this is a rich and even delicious history packed with intrigue and information that only the author could have attained.

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9780312603526

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Reviews

A rollicking good read.  -- NPR   [A] fascinating cast of moles and double agents, whistle-blowers and politicians. For the ambience of the closed world that inspired James Bond and George Smiley, this book is a winner.  -- Publishers Weekly   [In] his rollicking, readable new history of Britain's famous spy organizations...Thomas builds one fast-paced anecdote upon another, often yielding surprising insights.  -- Los Angeles Times   Authoritative history of Britain’s spy services by a veteran who has been writing about “the Great Game” for 50 years [and a] well-written page-turner that demystifies the notoriously foggy “wilderness of mirrors.”   --Kirkus Reviews    Thomas brings to the agencies' histories a high level of expertise, a fluent style accessible to lay reader and expert alike, and a combination of frankness and balance about some of his subjects' less glorious chapters.  -- Bookl

Author Information

GORDON THOMAS is a bestselling author of forty books published worldwide, including many on the international intelligence community. His awards include the Citizens Commission for Human Rights Lifetime Achievement Award for Investigative Journalism, the Mark Twain Society Award for Reporting Excellence, and an Edgar Allan Poe Award for Investigation. He lives in London.

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