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9780006530251

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A glowing biography, written by a singularly well-informed author who understands the difficulties that attend on secret work in Whitehall, and displays how dazzlingly they could be overcome by a single man really devoted to his job. Mansfield Smith-Cumming, the first official head of the secret intelligence service, had an all but impossible task when he started work in 1909; but built up trust in himself where it mattered, and assembled so formidable a body of spies and saboteurs to assist a British victory in the Great War of 1914-18 that he was knighted soon after it closed. He died in the early 1920s; all his successors, following his example, sign their minutes 'C'. Alan Judd shows great skill as his biographer, not least in saying honestly when the record is so scanty that he does not know the answer to questions a reader might put. (Kirkus UK)

Author Information

Alan Judd is the author of A Breed of Heroes, The Devil’s Own Work and the biography of Ford Madox Ford. He is currently writing a biography of the founder of MI6, Sir Mansfield Cummings. He joined the Parachute Regiment as a young man, serving all over the world. He went to Oxford University and read theology and, for many years he worked for the Foreign Office until he took early retirement to concentrate on his writing career. He reviews widely in the national press. He is married with a small daughter and lives in Sussex.

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