From the host of The Rest is Classified podcast, this is the 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 over a century 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 Carré. In MI6, security expert Gordon Corera 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 the Second World War, revealing the danger, the drama, the intrigue, the moral ambiguities and the occasional comedy that comes with working for British intelligence.
The grand dramas of the Cold War and its aftershocks – the rise and fall of the Berlin Wall, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the 9/11 and the Iraq war – are the backdrop for the human stories of the individual spies at the centre of the narrative. 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. 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.
The British Secret Service has been cloaked in secrecy and shrouded in myth since it was created over a century 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 Carré. In MI6, security expert Gordon Corera 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 the Second World War, revealing the danger, the drama, the intrigue, the moral ambiguities and the occasional comedy that comes with working for British intelligence.
The grand dramas of the Cold War and its aftershocks – the rise and fall of the Berlin Wall, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the 9/11 and the Iraq war – are the backdrop for the human stories of the individual spies at the centre of the narrative. 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. 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.
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Reviews
Highly readable and well-researched account of the Service...Let's hope the current generation of spooks has learnt from past mistakes.
His readable, breezy book's strength is to present the service's successes and failures within the political context of the times.
A refreshing...(and) compelling read.
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.
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.
His 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.
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.
This book will intrigue anyone with a taste for adventure and an interest in the moral dilemmas of loyalty and disloyalty.
Superb new history of British intelligence
The best post-1949 account of British intelligence I have read...this is as good as it gets. And it's a good read.
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 ART OF BETRAYAL tells the history of MI6 in the words of real spies.
An absorbing and often exhilarating account.
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.